Jack Della Maddalena believes he has seen the “blueprint” to beat Leon Edwards – and one tactic is not on it.
On 22 March, Della Maddalena will face Edwards in the main event of UFC London, travelling over from Australia to face the British-Jamaican.
While Edwards, a former champion, is a slight favourite in the welterweight contest, British fans have expressed apprehension; “Rocky” is as technical and well rounded as they come, but he has been accused of sometimes lacking urgency in fights.
In July, that apparent deficiency played a role in his decision loss to Belal Muhammad, who took the 170lb belt from Edwards in Manchester. Now Edwards is preparing to fight on home soil again, against a very different opponent to Muhammad, but one who is still known for his forward pressure.
While Muhammad’s modus operandi is to overwhelm opponents with wrestling – having trained with UFC icon Khabib Nurmagomedov in recent years – Della Maddalena prefers to stick to striking exchanges. However, like Muhammad, “JDM” does his best work while pressing forward.
“I’m gonna try and push the pace,” Della Maddalena told The Independent on Friday (24 January). “I think the worst thing I could do is just try and sit back and have a kickboxing fight with [Edwards], because he’s shown himself to be one of the better guys in the division at that sort of fight.
“I think the blueprint to beating him has been set: go out there and push the pace, balls to the wall, and that’s what I’m gonna do. That’s where I see my best advantages.
“I watched [Edwards’s title loss to Muhammad] at that point, I haven’t watched it since, I will start watching it back. I thought Leon was gonna win, but I wasn’t necessarily surprised. You know, Belal’s pretty good, he doesn’t get the props he deserves. He’s a good fighter, and he finds ways to win. And yeah, Leon has shown that he’s sort of happy to sit back and try to be more precise, pinpoint. But if you go in there against a guy like Belal, who’s gonna try and push the pace and get ahold of you, it’s gonna be a tough fight for him.”
This week, Della Maddalena said the UFC has not guaranteed the winner of his fight with Edwards a title shot, yet one could be on the cards. Muhammad is expected to defend the belt against Shavkat Rakhmonov this year, after a foot infection ruled the champion out of a bout with the Kazakh in December. A win over Edwards, 33, could set up Della Maddalena, 28, for a clash with Muhammad or Rakhmonov.
Would Della Maddalena have a preference between the pair? “Not necessarily,” he says, though he adds: “I’ve been wanting to fight Shavkat for some time.” Indeed, the Australian is one of very few fighters to have called out the unbeaten Rakhmonov, who has finished all of his opponents bar Ian Machado Garry, who replaced Muhammad in December and lost on points.
“I’d just seen some of his earlier fights and always thought he was a dangerous fighter,” JDM continues, “but whoever it is, I’m excited for the challenge. I like the sport, the different styles that create different challenges. Either one of them, I’ll come in fully prepared. Hopefully when my career’s done, I get to fight both of them.”
First up is Edwards, of course, after talks did not line up for Della Maddalena to fight in Sydney, at UFC 312 in February. For some time, there were also rumours that Della Maddalena could fight a different former champion, in Kamaru Usman.
“I think the UFC was trying to test the waters, to see who’d be up for coming to Australia, but none of the guys in the top 10 were that interested,” says the No 4 welterweight. “I was thinking it was gonna be Usman. I don’t know why, I just thought that was the fight the UFC was gonna do. [They] were seeing if he would come down to Sydney, maybe even [former interim champion] Colby Covington, but neither of them wanted to.
“To be honest, I didn’t think Leon would be the guy I’d fight, but he was the first guy they offered to me. And when he was the name, I was pretty excited.”
Della Maddalena will enter the O2 Arena on the back of 17 straight wins, having not lost since he was beaten in his first two professional bouts in 2016. Last time out, in March 2024, he stopped former title challenger Gilbert Burns with a flying knee, before undergoing surgery on a broken arm – an injury that later became infected, delaying his comeback.
Meanwhile, Edwards’s loss to Muhammad snapped a 12-fight win streak that dated back to 2015 – excluding a No Contest with Muhammad in 2021. During that winning run, Edwards scored an all-time great knockout of Usman to win the title in 2022, before retaining it against the Nigerian-American and Covington in 2023.
Jack Della Maddalena will face Leon Edwards in the main event in London on 22 March at UFC® FIGHT NIGHT: EDWARDS vs. DELLA MADDALENA. Tickets are now on sale via AXS and Ticketmaster.
