Islam Makhachev might be stalling, not wanting to take a lightweight title fight against Ilia Topuria, hoping for a jump to welterweight, but it might come back and haunt him. At least that’s what welterweight title contender Jack Della Maddalena wants to do.
As of right now, the welterweight champion Belal Muhammad is prepared to defend his title for the first time against the Aussie fighter at UFC 315 next month- a fight Makhachev will be keeping a keen eye on.
Makhachev has been pushed by analysts and fans alike, who believe a fight with Topuria would be his biggest challenge yet. But his team, headed by mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov, has declined the fight, citing a lack of belief in the Spaniard’s quality at 155 lbs.
It seems obvious that since Islam already wants to move on to 170 lbs, but cannot do so as long as Belal holds the title. The pair has trained together and refuses to fight each other. So, if Belal loses against Maddalena, it opens up the path for the Dagestani champion. Now, normally, the idea of taking on a dominant fighter like Islam would concern some opponents, but JDM is already salivating at the prospect.
During a podcast with Grin Reapers, one of the show’s hosts presented the idea that things could move really fast for the 5th-ranked welterweight if he managed to get rid of Belal.
“You beat Belal, Islam comes up, and you can ice him.” The icing on the cake, he added, was “Volk revenge!”
Modestly, responding to the idea, almost hoping not to jinx it, Madellena responded, “Yeah, yeah, anything is possible. If I get through Belal, opportunities will present themselves.”
Notably, featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski was on a tear in the 145 lbs division with a 12-fight win streak till he got to fight Makhachev at UFC 284.
Islam changed Volkanovski’s career
Volkanovski would manage to push Islam to the brink, losing narrowly via judges’ decision.
However, it’s the rematch that would truly change the trajectory of his career for the next couple of years.
Confident to get the job done with a full camp behind him, Volk would challenge for the lightweight title again eight months later at UFC 294 in 2023. As fate would have it, he could fall to a vicious headkick three minutes into the first round.
Soon after, he would lose his featherweight title to Ilia Topuria at UFC 298.
Naturally, as a fellow countryman, Maddalena would like to settle the score for Volkanovski. And while fighting Islam would be a huge boost for Maddalena’s career, the idea of facing Islam involves a lot of ifs and buts at the moment.
More importantly, dismissing Belal as a stepping stone to Islam would prove to be a fatal mistake with UFC 315 just around the corner.
‘He’s never faced anybody like me, ‘ claims Belal
Since defeating Leon Edwards at UFC 304 last year, Belal has been on a callout and dismissing potential opponents on social media all day long. And for good reasons.
The champion had already faced the who’s who of the 170 lbs division before he was even given the opportunity to fight for the title. And he damn near dominated everybody from Vincent Luque to Gilbert Burns to Stephen Thomson.
The reason- his near-perfect ground game, a brilliant camp, and a calculated game plan. Even Maddalena acknowledges it.
“Yeah, not the most exciting guy, but he’s good at winning… A lot of people who are good at winning are not always the most exciting people,” JDM said.
“Like GSP, he copped a bit back in the day, people would say he’s a bit boring. Then once the career’s done, you look back and go ‘Oh it’s…” he noted.
And now Belal has gone on to explain precisely why UFC 315 was going to be a long night for the Australian.
“I think he’s good at just not slowing down, right? He always picks up the speed. He’ll take a beating or take hits, and he’ll just keep chugging along. He’ll get taken down and he’ll keep chugging along“, the champion explained.
However, he doesn’t believe being a scrapper is a viable strategy against someone as consistently methodical as him.
“When you’re looking at his level of opponent, the level of guys he’s fought, all of them, we’ve seen it before where they’ve had a breaking point. In my fights, there’s never a breaking point“, he noted, asserting that his gas tank was simply going to outlast the Aussie challenger.
Needless to say, Maddalena will do better to prepare for the danger in front of him before looking forward to a glamorous encounter with the Dagestani lightweight king.
