After winning the title at UFC 315, Jack Della Maddalena faces a huge challenge in his first test as welterweight champion.
Belal Muhammad may still believe that he won that fight, but after coming in as a sizable underdog, Della Maddalena impressed a lot of people with his performance on that night.
Former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev’s decision to move up a division has set up a big welterweight title fight that is expected to take place later this year.
Makhachev has pushed for Madison Square Garden in November, but regardless of when and where it takes place, the fight has several interesting narratives that are going to be spoken about for months.
Some believe that the defending champion may have proven in his last fight that he has the ability to counter Makhachev’s strongest skillset, which a UFC commentator is “on board” with.
Laura Sanko believes that Craig Jones could be the key to Jack Della Maddalena beating Islam Makhachev
Just like in his recent fight with Belal Muhammad, the biggest challenge facing Jack Della Maddalena is whether he’s able to keep the fight standing against an opponent like Islam Makhachev.
The former lightweight champion has become a well-rounded fighter but his grappling is what made him so dominant at 155-pounds.
Following some concerns about Della Maddalena’s takedown defense from his previous fights, the Aussie answered a lot of these questions with his performance at UFC 315.
While he received a lot of credit for his improvements, a part of the praise also went to his grappling coach, Craig Jones.
The renowned jiu-jitsu competitor worked with Della Maddalena for this fight, and previously helped prepare Alexander Volkanovski for his fights with Makhachev.
In a recent interview with Submission Radio, UFC commentator Laura Sanko said that after seeing what Jones was working on with Della Maddalena and how effective it was at UFC 315, Jones may be the key after all.
“It was really fun and he showed me a handful of things that he was working on with Jack because I asked him. I was like, ‘I’m not going to tell anybody. I’m not calling the fight so can you show me?’ And he did and man, every single one of them played out in the fight so I’m definitely on board with the idea that Craig Jones is the key, the anti-Dagestani wrestling key.”
- READ MORE: Paddy Pimblett predicts prime vs prime fight between Conor McGregor and ‘carbon copy’ Ilia Topuria
Laura Sanko questions whether Islam Makhachev will regain his pound-for-pound status in his next fight
Following UFC 317, where Islam Makhachev’s former lightweight title was won by Ilia Topuria, there has been a change to the top of the pound-for-pound rankings.
Topuria now holds the top spot and Laura Sanko isn’t convinced that Makhachev can reclaim it by winning the welterweight title next time out.
The UFC commentator said that while the Russian’s title defenses hold weight, so do the run of knockouts that ‘El Matador’ has produced in his recent outings.
“I don’t know if he does it off the back of Jack [Della Maddalena],” Sanko told Submission Radio. “I love Jack but I don’t know if beating a shiny new champion is the same thing as beating a legend and a former champion like Charles Oliveira… That’s a tough one.”