Islam Makhachev made easy work of Jack Della Maddalena to snatch his welterweight title and become a multi-division champions at UFC 322, achieving something his legendary coach and childhood friend Khabib Nurmagomedov never managed.
Makhachev steamrolled the Australian across five rounds in a bout that was nearly difficult to watch, with the 34-year-old’s systematic destruction of Della Maddalena’s right calf leaving the defending champion in visible agony for the championship rounds.
He was shut out for five straight rounds on the ground, with the scorecards reading 50-45 in Makhachev’s favour across the board.
Makhachev had moved up to 170lbs after conquering the lightweight division and 29-year-old Della Maddalena, making his first title defence since dethroning Belal Muhammad earlier in the year, was expected to give the formidable Dagestani a tough test on his welcome to the division.
His elite scrambling ability, combined with knockout power and black-belt BJJ acumen, meant he possessed all the tools to overcome Makhachev, at least on paper. But in practice, he proved little threat to Makhachev’s apparent invincibility, squashing the life out of the champion as he recorded 18 minutes of control time across a 25 minute fight.
Makhachev became the 11th fighter to win UFC championships in multiple divisions, and tied Anderson Silva’s record with 16 consecutive wins.
In the co-main event at Madison Square Garden, Zhang Weili emulated Makhachev by moving up a division but, in opposite fashion, was dominated by the defending champion as flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko delivered a unanimous decision victory over the former strawweight champion.
Zhang was second best for the entire fight, struggling to close the distance to do damage on the feet and finding Shevcheno’s strength too much to overcome, falling to fight-defining takedowns in every round.
Elsewhere, British former welterweight champion Leon Edwards suffered a damning knockout loss to Carlos Prates, his third consecutive defeat and the first time he’d been slept in the UFC.
Things weren’t any better for Sean Brady, another welterweight contender who beat Edwards at UFC London in March, with the American failing to build on what was the biggest win of his career as he was stopped by undefeated 25-year-old Michael Morales.
Both Morales and Prates have now entered what is a stacked welterweight title picture, with the likes of Ian Garry, Shavkat Rakhmonov and Belal Muhammad all also vying to be Makhachev’s first challenger.
Benoit Saint Denis also recorded the sixth fastest knockout in UFC history as he stopped veteran Beneil Dariush in 16 seconds, while Bo Nickal got back in the win column with a brutal headkick knockout of Rodolfo Vieira.
