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Jack Della Maddalena is back home in Australia after a grueling five round war against Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 that saw the Perth native win the welterweight title.
It’s just the latest big win for Aussie fighters, and in a new interview with Sky Sports New Zealand Jack spoke about how important representing his country and getting helped by fellow champs like Alexander Volkanovski.
“It feels like a dream,” he said of the win. “To be included amongst the other Anzac UFC champions is pretty surreal, to be next to those guys. [Two Australian champs at the same time] makes it extra special. Really, it was awesome to see Volk get the belt back, especially with everyone counting him out. And then I was just really excited to bring another one home.”
“I worked with Volk and his team, I went there for a couple weeks before my previous fight and it was just really beneficial,” he added. “So then I got the opportunity to go there again. Obviously watching Volk, multiple time world champion, preparing for another five round world title fight was just easy. Watching him prepare and just learning some stuff from him. Such an incredible champion.”
The core tenet he took from working with Team Volk?
“It’s just a matter of game planning correctly and then making it happen in the moment.”
Maddalena also cited Robert Whittaker as an inspiration for his whole generation of fighters, and said he was hopeful Kai Kara-France would bring home another belt for the Australia / New Zealand fighting alliance at UFC 317. He also suggested Carlos Ulberg could be another champ.
Then there’s former lightweight champion and pound for pound No.1 ranked Islam Makhachev, who Jack Della Maddalena will fight in his first title defense.
“I welcome the challenge, I think I can beat him,” Della Maddalena said of the match-up. “So excited to get back to the gym and get back to work.”
“His grappling is some of the best we’ve seen. So, I’ve got to be extremely prepared, but I think I’ve got the skills to beat him. Obviously, I’m gonna have to work extremely hard, but my team fully believes that we’ve got the skills to beat Makhachev.”
No date has been announced for that fight, but based on reports it seems like the UFC is trying to make a fall defense in Della Maddalena’s hometown of Perth a reality.
