Michael Bisping thinks Jack Della Maddalena is being underestimated going into UFC 322, and the welterweight champion could be primed for an upset.
Della Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) is the betting underdog to former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) in the Nov. 15 headliner at Madison Square Garden in New York (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, FX, Disney+/ESPN+). He is tasked with stopping a challenger with the second-longest winning streak ever inside the octagon and a determination to join the two-division title club, and UFC Hall of Famer Bisping is certain it’ll be a tough task.
It’s not an insurmountable one in the UFC commentator and analyst’s opinion, though. Especially with Della Maddalena taking the title off Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 in May, a fighter who Bisping said lends himself well stylistically for what he could see out of Makhachev.
“For Islam, this is not an easy fight,” Bisping told MMA Junkie. “This is not an easy matchup. Jack Della Maddalena, the way that he beat Belal Muhammad is the perfect warm-up fight. If you’re going to fight Islam Makhachev, fight Belal Muhammad before that. He trains with him. He’s got a similar style. He might be bigger, he might be stronger, but the cardio is off the chain. Belal was doing great things, and he made it look – with respect to Belal – relatively easy.
“He boxed his head off, beautiful footwork, excellent takedown defense. On the rare occasion he was taken down, he got back to his feet pretty quickly. It’s a perfect warm-up fight to go up against Islam Makhachev. Islam is a different monster to Belal Muhammad, but you see the points that I’m making.”
Bisping is greatly intrigued by the matchup between Della Maddalena and Makhachev, because he truly believes it’s a 50/50 fight.
Della Maddalena, No. 1 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie welterweight rankings, is riding an 18-fight winning streak after losing his first two MMA fights. No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter Makhachev, meanwhile, is undefeated for more than 10 years and looking to match Anderson Silva for the longest winning streak in company history.
It’s about as high-level as it gets, and when that happens, Bisping thinks it comes down to a number of x-factors that are difficult to quantify.
“It’s a coin toss for me,” Bisping said. ” I think Islam has a very, very good shot. I think Jack Della Maddalena has a very good shot, and I know I’m kind of sitting on the fence. There’s a reason generally why fighters commit to a weight class. Islam is 34 years old. Throughout the entirety of his combat sports career, when he was growing up, when he was doing combat Sambo and transitioning to MMA, he’s always been this weight class. And it’s been for a reason. There are weight classes for a reason, because the guys are bigger and stronger and you don’t have as much success when you’re the smaller man. Who knows? Maybe his technique is that great.
“On the feet, Jack’s got an advantage. That’s just a fact. In the grappling department, Islam has an advantage. That’s also a fact. Then you look at the intangibles, like how bad does someone want it? How hard have they trained? What is their fighting spirit? It’s a cheesy line, but it’s true. What makes them tick, who are they and how badly are they going to prepare? When you see the fact he trains with Khabib and know they’re going to leave no stone unturned. But Jack Della Maddalena isn’t here by accident. This is what makes this such an incredible fight, because honestly, I could make a choice either way because it’s literally a coin toss.”
To hear more from Bisping, check out his complete appearance on “The Bohnfire” podcast with MMA Junkie senior reporter Mike Bohn above.
