Jack Della Maddalena expects Islam Makhachev to return to lightweight after he “takes him out”

Jack Della Maddalena doesn’t expect Islam Makhachev to be a welterweight for long.

Della Maddalena became the UFC’s welterweight champion on Saturday with a hard-fought decision win over Belal Muhammad. After the fight, Makhachev confirmed he would be moving up to welterweight to try and get the second belt and become a champ-champ.

Although nothing is booked, all signs point to that fight happening next, and Jack Della Maddalena is confident in himself. He believes the size and power difference will be noticeable as he will take out Makhachev, which will force him back to lightweight.

“I’m sure people are just gonna assume that Islam will just take me down and submit me pretty quickly,” Della Maddalena said to Ariel Helwani. “He seems like a pretty big, guy I think he’ll be alright. I think it will be one fight and he’ll probably have to back down. Yeah. I think I’m gonna take him out. I think it’ll be one fight and then he’ll probably have to go back down because of how it’ll go. Belal really just changes stances a lot and walks forward, but I think if I can have someone that just stays in the same stance and I don’t think Islam is a very good striker, I could land a lot of shots and I could take him out.”

Della Maddalena believes he would be able to keep the fight standing. On the feet, he feels like he’s the much better striker. However, he does wish he didn’t have to show his ground game against Belal Muhammad so he could surprise Makhachev with it.

Jack Della Maddalena will train with Alexander Volkanovski for the Islam Makhachev fight

Although Jack Della Maddalena is already confident in his own skills, he says he will go train with Alexander Volkanovski before facing Islam Makhachev.

Della Maddalena wants to pick Volkanovski’s brain about what he saw in there and certain areas where he can attack Makhachev.

“I’m going to spend a bit of time with Volk. If I were going to fight Islam, yeah, I’d have to (train with Volkanovski),” Della Maddalena added.

As of now, the Della Maddalena vs Makhachev fight isn’t booked but he expects it will happen.