Jack Della Maddalena is already planning his next move following his biggest win in the UFC gloves, to date.
The Australlian is just shy of 2 weeks removed from his Welterweight showdown with Gilbert Burns at UFC 299, in which the 27-year old managed to pull off an emphatic third round stoppage over Burns.
As if the victory against a tough veteran wasn’t enough, it was then revealed that Maddalena had broke his arm during the bout but fought on and claimed his biggest victory to date. Talking to Brett Okamoto for ESPN MMA, he said he was unsure as to when the break occurred and that the pain only really started in the third round.
“I felt it going into the third round. But yeah, I noticed watching it back, like every time I was southpaw, Gilbert kicked me straight in the body. I think that was obviously well, it was a good idea. I think every time he would Southpaw, he punted me in the body. I'm sure it was one of the kicks to the forearm that did it. I can't remember the exact kick, but yeah, there are some pretty powerful kicks that I felt on the forearm.”
Although not aware it was broken, the 17-2 Welterweight knew there was something wrong with his arm, admitting he just thought it was some severe bruising from the kicks he was continually defending early on in the contest. He said:
The only time I remember feeling pain was probably going out to the third round. I felt not necessarily that it was broken, but I just felt that my grip had sort of just gone. I couldn't really grip anything. I thought it might have just been a solid bruise. You know, definitely some of those kicks they were solid thuds that I took right on the forearm. Definitely knew my forearm had been bruised at least, but I didn't know it was that bad.”
Assessing his overall performance, Maddelena was relatively happy with the work he put in over the three rounds but knew that heading into the third round he was likely two rounds down – even though he had felt he’d done enough to edge them.
“I felt pretty good with the performance, you know, I feel like I could have been a bit more aggressive in getting away from him in the Takedowns. But I knew I had three rounds, you know, so I didn't want to do anything too dangerous. Just yeah, I was pretty happy with. I thought I was beating him on the feet.
“He landed some good shots, but I feel like I didn't take any damage on the ground. So I was happy. I thought I was beating him in the fight. I thought I was out damaging him. He was able to hold me, didn't land much damage. But I'm also understand how the judging works. So going to the third round, I knew most likely I was down two rounds just from being controlled for a small period of each round.”
As the third round rolled around, Maddalena struck the figure of an athlete hungry to get the finish, and that he did, hitting Burns with a huge knee before following up with some vicious ground and pound.
“I thought that would be enough to definitely sway judges. So going into the final round, the corner told me and I agreed with them that yeah, we need to get the finish and they gave me the right advice. I sort of amped me up to go after the finish .”
Following the win, the Australian called for a fight against fellow promotionally undefeated Welterweight and number 3 ranked Shavkat Rahkmonov. When asked for his reasoning behind the call out, Maddalena explained that he feels that the fight is destined to happen and could be one of the biggest fights to decide a title challenger in the promotions history.
“It’s inevitable, to be honest. I think they're trying to make it happen at the right time and my thoughts are this is the right time. I reckon it's the biggest title Eliminator fight Showdown in UFC. Yeah, in my opinion.”
Watch the full interview, below:
