Della Maddalena digs deep to dethrone Muhammad at UFC 315

MONTREAL — Not that there’s ever a good time to break your arm. But for Jack Della Maddalena, UFC’s new welterweight champion after prevailing in a five-round war with Belal Muhammad Saturday night at UFC 315 presented by Skilled Trades College, shattering his 14 months ago turned out to be a convenient twist of fate.

If not for that injury — sustained in the first round of a gutsy stoppage victory over Gilbert Burns in March 2024 — Della Maddalena likely fights again later that year against a dangerous top welterweight. Maybe even then No. 1 contender Shavkat Rakhmonov, whose fight with Muhammad fell through in December. Maybe Della Maddalena gets hurt in that fight. Maybe he loses.

Maybe he wins, but he isn’t available to be booked into a March fight with Leon Edwards. Maybe he isn’t pulled from that fight to give Muhammad an opponent at UFC 315, as he was only a month prior to the Edwards fight. Or maybe he is, but he’s carrying an injury into it; or merely more wear and tear that diminishes his ability to push through championship rounds. Maybe this, maybe that. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Not that Della Maddalena’s alone in what he admitted earlier this week — he’s had some pretty good timing. To become a UFC champion is to be the beneficiary of untold doors sliding and butterfly wings flapping. No one gets there without a lot going their way. But no one gets there by accident, either.

Certainly not Della Maddalena, who demonstrated remarkable toughness and heart in fighting through that broken arm to finish Burns two rounds later — another what if: Burns was up on two of three scorecards at the time — and somehow dug even deeper for more to rip the welterweight title from Muhammad’s hands Saturday.

That’s what it takes against any champion but seldom has it been truer than in this fight, which was tied on two of three judge’s scorecards going into the fifth. Della Maddalena went to the well in those final five minutes, landing punishing shots over and over, shucking off multiple takedown attempts, and pouring forward with combinations throughout a wild final 90 seconds that brought nearly 20,000 Montrealers to their feet.

“Yeah, I was hoping to get him out of there,” Della Maddalena said of his surge in the fifth. “I was thinking all week it would be cool to get that late fight finish like the Gilbert Burns one. It felt good to rally through and then take him out at the end. So, I tried.”

Remember, perpetual pressure is Muhammad’s game. He’s a tremendous wrestler and heavy kicker, but his true separator is how doggedly he applies a consistently high pace on opponents, forcing them backwards into fences while directing fights into areas where he excels. Even now in his mid-30s, the man is not easily deterred.

And yet, Della Maddalena looked perfectly comfortable withstanding that pressure through the first three rounds, stuffing takedowns, getting home with jabs, ripping the body and busting up Muhammad’s face. The fourth was the defending champion’s best round, as Della Maddalena got away from his jab and was forced to the fence where Muhammad made things grimy with short hooks and elbows in tight.

“The game plan was to stay off the fence. I feel like he does his best work there,” Della Maddalena said. “But he was just walking me down, pushing me up against the fence. But I felt like with my footwork, every time he came in, I was able to hit him.”

Della Maddalena answered any questions about how he’d fare in his first championship rounds when he accessed an energy reservoir in the fifth, opening more welts on Muhammad’s face, punishing him in the pocket and hunting a finish in the final 30 seconds. When all was said and done, Muhammad was visibly gassed as Della Maddalena jumped up on the cage to salute the crowd.

It’s one of Della Maddalena’s greatest strengths — his mettle. His ability to maintain composure and calm in chaos. He said earlier this week he doesn’t ever get mad in or outside the octagon. Even while having the welterweight belt wrapped around his waist Saturday night, the man looked practically bored.

“Yeah, this is exactly how I thought it would feel,” Della Maddalena said in his octagon interview. “It feels (expletive) good.”

Barring the unexpected — and when has the unexpected ever occurred in MMA? — the path is now clear for Islam Makhachev to make a long-awaited move up to welterweight and chase a second title, as he suggested Saturday night:

The only shame in that is it likely robs us of Makhachev defending his lightweight belt against Ilia Topuria, the former featherweight champion who’s moving up a weight class. Makhachev trains with Muhammad and wouldn’t have fought him if he’d successfully defended his belt on Saturday. But Della Maddalena took care of that.

Now, Topuria will likely fight Charles Oliveira for either an interim lightweight title or a vacant proper one if the UFC makes Makhachev’s move to 170-lbs. contingent on him leaving his current belt behind. Makhachev has made it clear he’s chasing double champ status. But considering how difficult his weight cuts to 155-lbs. have seemed to be of late, defending two belts in divisions with 15-lbs. between them seems unrealistic.

That’s of little concern to Della Maddalena, whose good fortune only continues as now, only three years and eight fights after coming off the Contender Series, he’s in line for a super fight with the sport’s consensus pound-for-pound best. Imagine being Muhammad, who had to run his professional record to 23-3 — culminating in a 10-fight unbeaten streak over a five-year span — before the UFC gave him a title shot, watching some Australian turn up out of nowhere and steal your strap.

Of course, it’s the fashion in which Della Maddalena won on Saturday that makes him undeniable — good timing or not. You don’t win a belt, you take a belt. You rip it away. Fate can put you in a good position. But you still must do the job.

Job done Saturday, his right cheek badly bruised, his crooked nose cut, his eyes tired, Della Maddalena sat at a podium with that belt before him and told Makhachev what he’d need to do to take it away.

“Come get it,” he said. “Come get it.”