Jack Della Maddalena is more than happy to give Islam Makhachev a crack at the welterweight title.
Next month, Maddalena challenges Belal Muhammad for the welterweight title at UFC 315, and it’s been heavily rumored that lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is waiting on that fight to determine his next bout. Makhachev is friends with Muhammad and thus won’t move up if Belal is the champion, but if Maddalena pulls off the upset, the belief is that Makhachev will get the first crack at Maddalena. And that’s perfectly alright with Maddalena.
“That would be nice,” Maddalena said on the Grin Reapers YouTube channel. “In Perth. That would be a bit of a story, Volk [revenge]. We’ll see. Anything’s possible. We get through Belal, and then I think, yeah, I guess opportunities will present themselves.”
Volkanovski, obviously, has plenty of history with Makhachev, losing to him in a pair of lightweight title fights in 2023. And while Maddalena and Volkanovski aren’t from the same team, both are from Australia and have spent some time training together, including recently as Volkanovski prepared for his UFC 314 title fight with Diego Lopes. And Maddalena has immense respect for the featherweight champion and what he means for Australia.
“In my opinion, maybe Australia’s — obviously, I’m a bit biased, but Australia’s greatest athlete,” Maddalena said. “You’d have to put him up there. Maybe if he didn’t win this one, you wouldn’t put him in that list, but after winning this one, you have to put him in the conversation.”
Maddalena faces Belal Muhammad in the main event of UFC 315, which goes down on May 10 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
