Aussie Jack Della Maddalena sets sights on UFC ‘GOAT’ ahead of debut
Jack Della Maddalena will become the latest Aussie to make his UFC debut and he’s set his sights on fighting a GOAT of the Octagon.
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Jack Della Maddalena will make his UFC debut in just a few weeks and the Australian has already set his sights on climbing the ranks and fighting the “welterweight GOAT”.
He will appear on the undercard at UFC 270 in Las Vegas on January 23, which will be headlined by the heavyweight clash between Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane.
Watch UFC 270: Ngannou vs Gane LIVE on Main Event available on Kayo & Foxtel, Sunday 23rd January from 2pm AEDT. ORDER NOW >
Della Maddalena, who will go by the name Jack Della in the Octagon, will be the underdog when he takes on Brazilian veteran Warlley Alves, who defeated Colby Covington in 2015.
The Perth local is on a 10-fight winning streak and caught the attention of UFC president Dana White with an eye-catching win over Ange Loosa at White’s Contender Series in September.
Della Maddalena’s performance was enough for White to give him his first UFC fight. The Aussie will travel to the US on Friday to finalise his preparation for what will be the biggest bout of his career so far.
“I’m super excited,” Della Maddalena told news.com.au.
“At the end of the day it’s just another fight but it is obviously the biggest fight of my career.
“The next fight is always sort of the big fight. I’m super excited. I think it’s going to be a pretty incredible atmosphere. I expect to put on a good performance and have a good night.”
The 25-year-old said while he’s studied Alves’ previous fights, he won’t go in with a prepared strategy, preferring stick to his guns and what’s work for him before.
“I have watched a lot of his fights,” Della Maddalena said.
“Luckily enough he’s got a lot of footage out there so we’ve definitely watched them just to get an idea of what we can sort of expect come fight night.
“But you do never know what someone’s going to bring. I personally don’t like to get too caught up in game plans. I like to get an idea of what he’s going to do, his sort of style of fighting and then just stick to what we normally do and try to implement what we want to do in the fight.
“I’m definitely going to try keep standing and have a good fight with him. He’s quite aggressive, got nice kicks so I’m expecting him to come at me with some kicks, a whole range of punches.
“He’s sort of like a kill or be killed fighter. My plan is definitely to meet him in the middle and try and land hard shots on him and try and put him away.”
Della Maddalena enters UFC with the welterweight division at an interesting position. In recent years it has been dominated by current champion Kamaru Usman, with Covington representing his only serious challenger to the title belt.
Della Maddalena’s immediate goal is to win each fight he takes and rise up the rankings, but he believes there is potentially an opening in the welterweight division for up and coming fighters to make an impression.
“My plan definitely now that I’m here, I definitely want to climb those rankings, get to the top,” he said.
“That’s the long term goal. Short term goal is definitely just keep getting those wins, one fight after the next. Backing them up with good performance, finishes and just slowing climb those rankings.”
His dream is to one day fight Usman, who is ranked the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC’s rankings and viewed by Della Maddalena as “the welterweight GOAT”.
“I think at the moment the welterweight division is at a point where it is about to open up. Usman’s obviously been on top dominating for a while,” Della Maddalena said.
“He’s probably close to the end of his run, I think — whether it’s retirement or sometimes you just get chopped off at the top.
“I think it’s a good time for the welterweight division. There’s a lot of young talent coming through, new fighters.
“Many people have called Usman the welterweight GOAT, which is pretty cool to think it’s a possibility that I could fight the welterweight GOAT one day. That would probably be one of the dream match-up, to fight the welterweight GOAT.
“Hopefully he sticks around for a little bit and it works out that way but if not, I think the welterweight division is about to open up with a lot of young talent coming through.
“Obviously it’s a long road to the top but my goal is of course is at any point to take out the highest ranked person I can. I understand it’s going to be a slow process but I’m definitely going to try get to that top as quickly as possible.
“Hopefully Usman is around over the next two to three years and we can meet, but we’ll see what happens.”
Della Maddalena said he has been inspired by Australian UFC champions Alex Volkanovski and Robert Whittaker but he is intent on forging his own path in the sport.
“Obviously those guys are legends — the best Australian fighters to do it,” he said.
“Those guys paving the way is just solidifying the idea that it is 100 per cent possible. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, who you are, you can get to the top. It’s just basically about hard work.
“I’m definitely inspired by those guys. They’ve paved the way for a lot of Aussie fighters. I definitely want to try and solidify my own path.”
Originally published as Aussie Jack Della Maddalena sets sights on UFC ‘GOAT’ ahead of debut
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