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Former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev will move up to the welterweight division to challenge champion Jack Della Maddalena in the UFC 322 main event on Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden.
Makhachev relinquished his 155-pound world title for an opportunity to join the exclusive club of two-division UFC champions. Part of his preparation was putting on pounds.
“This camp is really hard. I gained weight. I became big,” Makhachev recently told ESPN MMA.
“We changed like many, many things,” Makhachev continued. “We sat with the coaches and we made the plan, you know. And (it was) very difficult to gain the weight. I finally became a little bit big now because I tried to like the last couple of months. It’s very hard. I used like creatine, protein after every training. You try to eat more, but it’s very hard when you train twice a day. When you’re training hard it’s very hard to gain weight.”
The 34 year-old Dagestani certainly got bigger. A training video post on social media showed a much larger Mackhachev.
Welterweight Islam Makhachev looking BIG 👀💪 #UFC322(via @Usmannmgdv) pic.twitter.com/1HPNsu7ZhW
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 9, 2025
