Jacques Della Madarena is pleased to give Islamic Makhachev a crack in the welterweight title.
Next month, Maddalena will challenge Belal Muhammad for the Welterweight title at UFC 315, and it is fiercely rumored that lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is waiting for that fight to decide on his next match. Mahachev is friends with Muhammad, so if the Beral is the champion it won’t rise, but the belief is that if Madalena separates the upset, Mahachev will get the first crack in Madalena. And it’s perfectly fine with Maddalena.
“That would be fine,” Maddalena said on her laughter-cut YouTube channel. “In Perth, that’s a bit of a story, Volk. We can do anything. We’ll get over the Berals and yeah, I think an opportunity will appear.”
Volkanovsky clearly has a lot of history with Makhachev and is losing to him in the 2023 lightweight title fight. And Madalena and Volkanovsky are not from the same team, and they’ve been motivated recently, even as Volkanovsky prepares for the UFC 314 title fight. And Madalena has a great respect for the featherweight champion and what he means to Australia.
“In my opinion, it’s probably Australian. Obviously, I’m a bit biased, but I’m Australia’s biggest athlete,” Madarena said. “You have to put him there. If he doesn’t win this, you won’t put him on that list, but after you win this, you have to put him in the conversation.”
Maddalena faces the Beral Mohammed in the main event of UFC 315, which will go down on May 10 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.