Jack Della Maddalena will be coming back into this weekend straight into a title fight after more than a year on the sidelines due to a broken hand. The Aussie seemingly edged past Ian Garry to secure a fight for Belal Muhammad‘s welterweight championship at UFC 315, who has been more active than he has been in the last twelve months. It certainly is a big deal for the Australian national, and now, it seems like Maddalena has some expectations to live up to this weekend.
The Palestinian-American has been on one helluva run in the UFC, with an unbeaten 10-fight winning streak since 2019. In fact, he has yet to lose a fight since the turn of this decade, which only a few fighters have been able to do on the entire UFC roster. Muhammad’s wrestling-heavy style has often left his opponents without any answer, which is something that Della Maddalena and the whole community are aware of.
During what seemed like a documentary by ‘BetchaNZ’, Jack, his brother Josh, and his mother were seen having a conversation about how the fight would pan out. The 17-2 welterweight star acknowledged that it’s not going to be easy against Muhammad. Regardless, he’s confident and excited to finish the fight in the last round, but his mother doesn’t want him to wait for that long.
Fighting is a tough business, and Della Maddalena’s mother wants him to end the fight as soon as possible, calling for a 1st-round finish. As the welterweight contender claimed, “A good bet will be a 5th-round finish. I think that’s exciting,” his mother replied, “I prefer the first round.” Maybe Muhammad now has to be extra cautious in the opening round of their fight.
Well, that’s a pretty big expectation to live up to for Della Maddalena because he had a very lengthy layoff due to that injury. But maybe his mother is not wrong after all. Why? Well, the Australian star also revealed that his career might have come to an end after he injured himself in his last fight.
Jack Della Maddalena opens up about nursing a difficult injury
The Aussie welterweight appears to have been in a really bad place after getting his arm broken after fighting Gilbert Burns at UFC 299. His arm was in such a bad place that dealing with that was, in his wife’s own words, really “frustrating.” Also, Maddalena had to undergo multiple surgeries, after which he started having thoughts about maybe this was the end of the road for him.
“Ten days after surgery, liquid was coming out of my wound. It stunk. The surgeon he cut it open, and it just exploded. Pretty much the same thing happened three weeks later,” said Jack Della Maddalena. However, the 28-year-old pulled through, as he added, “There was definitely sometimes when I was like maybe I won’t be able to fight again. But what do you do? You just have to roll with it.”
UFC 315 is a big opportunity for Della Maddalena, not only because it’s for the title but also because everybody gets to fight for the title after being benched for well over a year. But he does make a strong case for a title shot since he’s the only other top 5 welterweight who’s yet to lose a fight in the UFC, with the other one being Shavkat Rakhmonov.
It will be interesting to see how the fight plays out, and in the meantime, let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The post Jack Della Maddalena’s Mother Refuses to Settle for Less as UFC Star Gets an Ultimatum for Belal Muhammad UFC 315 Fight appeared first on EssentiallySports.