Israel Adesanya wasn’t a fan of the UFC giving Jack Della Maddalena Islam Makhachev for his first title defense.
Welterweight champion Della Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) meets ex-lightweight champ Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) in the UFC 322 headliner on Nov. 15 from Madison Square Garden in New York.
Adesanya admits he initially wasn’t keen on the matchup, but understood why the UFC put it together.
“Even for me, the fact that they gave you Islam straightaway, I was thinking, is that disrespectful?” Adesanya told Della Maddalena on his YouTube channel. “But then I said, ‘Nah, I won’t say it’s disrespectful, they just respect Islam and they want to give him the shot for the belt, so he can be like Alex (Pereira) did, go double-champ status.'”
Adesanya expects Della Maddalena to frustrate Makhachev early, then take over in the latter rounds.
“Even if you have to give up your back to a granby roll and he tries to – because (Alexander Volkanovski) did the same thing as well, he was trying to be two moves or three moves ahead of Volk, but Volk was like four or five moves ahead,” Adesanya said. “Volk was using his one butterfly just to kick him off. The way you do it as well, the urgency. I just don’t think he’s going to be able to keep you down. …There’s going to be a point by the third or fourth takedown, maybe sixth takedown attempt, and he realizes, ‘Oh, sh*t, this guy isn’t staying down.'”
