UFC London: Jack Della Maddalena on ‘blueprint’ to beat Leon Edwards – and ‘worst factor’ he might do

Jack Della Maddalena believes he has seen the “blueprint” to beat Leon Edwards – and one tactic will not be on it.

On 22 March, Della Maddalena will face Edwards in the primary occasion of UFC London, travelling over from Australia to face the British-Jamaican.

Whereas Edwards, a former champion, is a slight favorite within the welterweight contest, British followers have expressed apprehension; “Rocky” is as technical and properly rounded as they arrive, however he has been accused of generally missing urgency in fights.

In July, that obvious deficiency performed a job in his resolution loss to Belal Muhammad, who took the 170lb belt from Edwards in Manchester. Now Edwards is making ready to struggle on house soil once more, in opposition to a really totally different opponent to Muhammad, however one who remains to be recognized for his ahead strain.

Whereas Muhammad’s modus operandi is to overwhelm opponents with wrestling – having educated with UFC icon Khabib Nurmagomedov lately – Della Maddalena prefers to stay to hanging exchanges. Nonetheless, like Muhammad, “JDM” does his finest work whereas urgent ahead.

“I’m gonna attempt to push the tempo,” Della Maddalena advised The Impartial on Friday (24 January). “I believe the worst factor I might do is simply attempt to sit again and have a kickboxing struggle with [Edwards], as a result of he’s proven himself to be one of many higher guys within the division at that form of struggle.

“I believe the blueprint to beating him has been set: go on the market and push the tempo, balls to the wall, and that’s what I’m gonna do. That’s the place I see my finest benefits.

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“I watched [Edwards’s title loss to Muhammad] at that time, I haven’t watched it since, I’ll begin watching it again. I believed Leon was gonna win, however I wasn’t essentially stunned. You recognize, Belal’s fairly good, he doesn’t get the props he deserves. He’s an excellent fighter, and he finds methods to win. And yeah, Leon has proven that he’s form of comfortable to take a seat again and attempt to be extra exact, pinpoint. However in the event you go in there in opposition to a man like Belal, who’s gonna attempt to push the tempo and get ahold of you, it’s gonna be a troublesome struggle for him.”

This week, Della Maddalena mentioned the UFC has not assured the winner of his struggle with Edwards a title shot, but one could possibly be on the playing cards. Muhammad is anticipated to defend the belt in opposition to Shavkat Rakhmonov this 12 months, after a foot an infection dominated the champion out of a bout with the Kazakh in December. A win over Edwards, 33, might arrange Della Maddalena, 28, for a conflict with Muhammad or Rakhmonov.

Would Della Maddalena have a choice between the pair? “Not essentially,” he says, although he provides: “I’ve been desirous to struggle Shavkat for a while.” Certainly, the Australian is considered one of only a few fighters to have referred to as out the unbeaten Rakhmonov, who has completed all of his opponents bar Ian Machado Garry, who changed Muhammad in December and misplaced on factors.

“I’d simply seen a few of his earlier fights and all the time thought he was a harmful fighter,” JDM continues, “however whoever it’s, I’m excited for the problem. I like the game, the totally different types that create totally different challenges. Both of them, I’ll are available in totally ready. Hopefully when my profession’s accomplished, I get to struggle each of them.”

First up is Edwards, after all, after talks didn’t line up for Della Maddalena to struggle in Sydney, at UFC 312 in February. For a while, there have been additionally rumours that Della Maddalena might struggle a unique former champion, in Kamaru Usman.

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“I believe the UFC was making an attempt to check the waters, to see who’d be up for coming to Australia, however not one of the guys within the prime 10 had been that ,” says the No 4 welterweight. “I used to be considering it was gonna be Usman. I don’t know why, I simply thought that was the struggle the UFC was gonna do. [They] had been seeing if he would come all the way down to Sydney, possibly even [former interim champion] Colby Covington, however neither of them needed to.

“To be trustworthy, I didn’t assume Leon could be the man I’d struggle, however he was the primary man they supplied to me. And when he was the title, I used to be fairly excited.”

Della Maddalena will enter the O2 Area on the again of 17 straight wins, having not misplaced since he was crushed in his first two skilled bouts in 2016. Final outing, in March 2024, he stopped former title challenger Gilbert Burns with a flying knee, earlier than present process surgical procedure on a damaged arm – an damage that later turned contaminated, delaying his comeback.

In the meantime, Edwards’s loss to Muhammad snapped a 12-fight win streak that dated again to 2015 – excluding a No Contest with Muhammad in 2021. Throughout that successful run, Edwards scored an all-time nice knockout of Usman to win the title in 2022, earlier than retaining it in opposition to the Nigerian-American and Covington in 2023.

Jack Della Maddalena will face Leon Edwards in the primary occasion in London on 22 March at UFC® FIGHT NIGHT: EDWARDS vs. DELLA MADDALENA. Tickets at the moment are on sale by way of AXS and Ticketmaster.