Ben Vickers makes no excuses for Jack Della Maddalena’s title loss at UFC 322.
Della Maddalena (28-1 MMA, 17-1 UFC) was outgrappled in a dominant decision loss to Islam Makhachev (18-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) this past Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.
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Della Maddalena was controlled on the ground for over 19 minutes, but it was the constant grimace on his face which caught everyone’s attention. Was he dejected? Or did he enter the fight hurt?
“When you commit to having a fight, it doesn’t matter what the f*ck is wrong with you – if anything was,” Vickers told Submission Radio. “We’re not going to confirm or deny anything. When we decided to step in the cage, we believed Jack could win that fight. That’s all I’m going to say. There are no excuses here. We didn’t do enough on the day to get the job done, and that is it.”
Vickers acknowledged the damage Makhachev’s calf kicks did on Della Maddalena, and how it hampered his movement.
“The game plan was to be further away than that range, probably, and then switching stances a lot,” Vickers said. “I think when the lead leg gets compromised early, it kind of like hurt the game plan a little bit in terms of stance switching and stuff like that. I commend them on their game planning against us. They clearly studied a lot of tape. They had an answer for the head-hands defense with the head kicks and stuff like that.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Jack Della Maddalena’s coach addresses injury rumors at UFC 322
