High five: how Makhachev beat Maddalena and won the second UFC belt

Russian fighter Islam Makhachev defeated Australian Jack Della Maddalena in the main event of the UFC 322 tournament. Makhachev won by decision of the judges and won the welterweight belt. He became a double UFC champion — previously, 34-year-old Makhachev was the lightweight champion and left the belt to move to another weight category. Maddalena suffered his third defeat with 18 wins. Makhachev won his 28th MMA victory with one loss. Read more about the cult victory of Islam in the Izvestia article.

The key point

Before this fight, Makhachev was on a streak of 15 wins in a row, thanks to a successful fight with Maddalena, the Russian could repeat the historical record of Anderson Silva, who won 16 times in a row in the UFC. Before moving to the welterweight division, Makhachev defended the 70 kg belt four times, and this is the best record in the history of his category. After winning the title fight over Charles Oliveira, Islam defeated Alex Volkanovski twice, and also finished off Dustin Poirier and Renato Moicano.

Jack Della Maddalena became the UFC champion very recently — in May 2025. The Australian unexpectedly defeated Belal Muhammad by unanimous decision, before winning seven more fights. Among those who lost to Maddalena are such fighters as Gilbert Burns, Kevin Holland and Ramadan Emeev. And Jack was preparing for the meeting with Makhachev in the company of Alex Volkanovsky, who gave Islam a very difficult first fight.

As a result, Makhachev took all five rounds. It turned out that Islam just might not give a boxer a distance. He provided this distance to Porya and reboxed him himself, but then he just didn't give it to him. In the first round, Maddalena tried to close the distance with a blitz, but Islam left, the punches flew by. He tried again, and Islam met him with a left side kick. In the following rounds, when Maddalena tried to close the distance, Makhachev moved him.

It also caught my eye that Islam is physically in perfect order for this weight. As well as functionally. But there was such a preponderance in wrestling technique and wrestling IQ that functionally Islam did not have to seriously strain himself. Every takedown passes, the opponent cannot stand up, there is no need to fight at the net. Accordingly, no effort is wasted.

The key moment of the fight was Maddalena's unsuccessful catch in the second round. He was throwing everyone off with this pick-up, and then he collapsed. If he hadn't entered it, if he had just stood rooted to the spot, fought against capture, for the underhook, he could have pulled the forces out of Islam and even received some kind of small psychological fracture. After all, Islam, as you remember, at that moment at the net at first failed to hook Jack's leg. Maybe, of course, he would have stolen it from the net anyway, but Maddalena was clearly in a hurry to catch it.

The main thing was that Jack couldn't get up, couldn't do anything about the shoulder pressure, couldn't work with his knee at Halfgard (like Volkov worked with Almeida, but there's different anthropometry and physics, of course), didn't show any technical sweeps. I only created space properly once, in the first round, but I gave my back. Grid also couldn't walk with his feet on the wall — he was completely helpless. Makhachev never yawned, made no mistake, or lost his position in the stalls — this is the highest class.

The Answered challenge: Will Jack Della Maddalena be able to stop Makhachev

The Russian is going for the second belt

Dream

This victory was the 16th in a row for the Russian. He repeated the record of Brazilian Anderson Silva, who won in 16 fights from 2006 to 2013.

"It's a dream, my whole life is for these two belts,— Makhachev said after the fight. "I'm so happy." These belts are so heavy, and I love it. I've worked very hard for this. New York, thank you! I swear, my life has changed, there is no weight race, I can work for five rounds without stopping, fight, whatever I want. I made this fight easy. My plan, it's not a secret, is [fighting]. Donald Trump, go ahead, open the White House, I'm coming!

Oleg Taktarov, the winner of the UFC 6 tournament, explained Makhachev's advantage.

— Everything was without mistakes, — he emphasized. — Islam works like a computer. Now Makhachev is simply the most literate of all. Notice how genuinely pleased he was. This is the first time I've seen such emotions in him. We must pay tribute to Maddalena — he defended himself competently. I let myself get caught, of course, but otherwise everything was fine.

Who is the most difficult opponent for Makhachev in this weight class? Rakhmonov, Morales, then Harry. Prates won't pull through in the fight. Usman is strong, but that's yesterday. He'll take a lot away from Islam in a stand-up position. Topuria is too small for 77 kg. Islam will not give him a distance, and Elijah will have to suffer in the struggle. Makhachev is also left-handed, so Topuria will also not be able to punch his trademark low.

UFC President Dana White, when asked about a possible match between Makhachev and Topuria, replied that there are many options and it all depends on what Islam is planning.