As Jack Della Maddalena readies to defend his welterweight title against former lightweight ruler Islam Makhachev in the main event of VeChain UFC 322 this weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Kyte reached out to Eric Nicksick from Xtreme Couture to discuss the matchup and pull apart the pieces of this contest that make it so fascinating.
Best Trait of Each Fighter
Kyte: Welterweight title on the line — Jack Della Maddalena and Islam Makhachev. What’s the best trait of each guy?
Nicksick: For Jack, it’s definitely his boxing — good volume, mixes his targets and stances well, has power; he’s got it all when it comes to his boxing, and he needs to lean heavy on it.
The boxing ties into product placement: where do you put your boxing in relation to negating wrestling? That’s what is going to be really interesting to see with Jack’s boxing on Saturday.
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I tell guys to aim right at that collarbone level because if he’s dropping levels, it catches them. Because Islam is more of a Greco guy, it’s not knee taps or double legs — he wants chest-to-chest — those shots can be even more effective.
Kyte: Because he’s coming in more upright, looking to get connected like you said, chest-to-chest rather than underneath at the hips?
Nicksick: Exactly. He’s looking for those inside trips and has a very efficient style of grappling.
I think the other thing for me is that Jack does a very good job of, if he does get taken down, his shoulder blades are never on the mat; he’s very good at controlling the scrambles, very flowy in the scrambles, which is something we’ll talk about a little later.
But those are my biggest things with him is: the boxing, the product placement, and continuing to be difficult to hold down within those scrambles.
Kyte: I’m really interested to see his body work here. We talk about it all the time as such an investment — “it’s money in the bank” — but he’s someone that it’s naturally a part of his game and always has been. He doesn’t need to change anything up and add it in here; he’s always ripping that lean over left hook into the midsection, constantly.
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I’m interested to see how much of that comes out, especially early, as a way to potentially start slowing Islam down and making him think. He does it so well, it’s such an important and impactful piece of his game, and I think we will see him really lean on it straight away.
Nicksick: If I were them, I would be 60/40 or even 70/30 heavier on the body side of things. I would lead a lot of my combinations or have the body shot in the middle of the combination before going back upstairs to the head, but I’m leaning on that boxing and trying to hit that dude at least once or twice per combo down in the body, especially in a five-rounder.
Kyte: What’s Islam do best?
Nicksick: It’s his clinch dominance and his chain wrestling, his control. He’s just so good in those positions. He’s got it all.
Kyte: It’s insane, honestly.
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Path to Victory
Kyte: What does Della need to do in order to retain his title?
Nicksick: I would say my biggest area of focus would be first-layer takedown defense, and what I mean by that is I think a lot of guys miss the frames, skip framing, and go directly to underhooks, and if you go immediately to underhooks, you’re gonna be chest-to-chest with Islam, and you miss a layer of defense.
So what I would say is that you have to win the entry phase before the underhook or mat phase, and you can do that in two ways: one is owning the geography and not putting your back to the barrier, but that first line out of the open stance will be key. The other thing I added in here too is “don’t wrestle back” and think about wrestling three seconds longer because this dude is gonna be on you.
Kyte: Always. When you think he’s done and you’re clear, stay at it because he’s coming one more time.
Nicksick: From an offensive standpoint, it’s volume boxing and front-foot pressure — he has to keep Islam reacting, not dictating. Maintain the jab, rip the body, and finish with low kicks to force resets.
The interesting thing for me is gonna be out of that open stance, is Jack gonna go inside lows, working shake steps to go southpaw? For me, I think the primary weapon for JDM is gonna be that rear-side teep to the body, keeping it fast and straight and snappy, rather than leaving a kick out there to be caught.
Kyte: And what about the challenger?
Nicksick: So in my notes I wrote, “Walk JDM to the fence, clinch, body lock, inside trip, and eliminate striking space to try to grind him down.”
I can see Islam getting a finish later in the fight, but I feel like the couple rounds, if I’m in that camp, are just to chip away at him, slow this down, get him frustrated. Top control and position over submission, especially early — flatten JDM out, get his shoulder blades to the mats, make him stand up, and try to drain his gas tank, try to drain that striking edge by making him pummel and work.
Kyte: It really feels — as simple as it is — like this is a who can dictate where and how this fight takes place kind of fight? I know that applies to every fight, but with this one, it really does feel cut-and-dry in terms of the grappling, kind of like with (Khamzat) Chimaev and DDP (Dricus du Plessis) this summer where everything shifted based on whether du Plessis could (1) keep it standing or (2) get back to his feet quickly, without taking too much damage or expending too much energy?
Nicksick: Exactly. DDP couldn’t reroute Khamzat in order to start the sequence again. And for Jack, if you can’t get Islam off you and he controls it, that’s the fight.
Kyte: Right, because he’s not going out there to strike with Jack. He’ll strike because every round starts standing, and he’s not crashing forward carelessly, but he’s going out there to wrestle, control you on the ground; grind, and find his spots.
He’s not even out there hunting submissions — he’s roughing you up, and if you present something, he’s gonna take it.
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Nicksick: A hundred percent.
X Factor
Kyte: Okay, so what’s the X-factor here?
Nicksick: My X-factor I have for JDM is counter uppercut timing because Islam tends to dip his head on his entries, so he’s got to threaten Islam with the right uppercut as he dips for his entries because one clean shot and end the fight.
And for Islam, it’s the weight transfer and cardio — does his size enhance his strength without slowing down his speed because, if so, he can dominate, and if not, JDM can take over late.
Kyte: That’s my x-factor too, is just what does him changing divisions look like?
We often talk about it being better to go up than to go down — better to be adding, rather than taking away — but adding doesn’t necessarily always just mean you’re automatically going to be better. This is 15 pounds — but 15 pounds on the day you step on the scale — and probably more like 20 or 25 pounds on fight night and day-to-day.
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Jack has talked about this a little that Islam is beating ‘55s and a terrific ‘45er, where he’s the bigger guy and can bully people, but now he’s going up, and I would bet you that Della walks around somewhere in the neighborhood of 190, 195 pounds. And Islam has talked about how depleted he is at lightweight, so who knows?
You can mess yourself up going up, too.
Nicksick: Oh for sure; I completely agree, but knowing Islam a little, I think this is going to favor him a lot more, knowing his style.
One Coaching Curiosity
Kyte: You mentioned you had a real curiosity when it comes to Della’s grappling in this fight and that it pertains to Craig Jones.
Nicksick: Yeah. The interesting thing to me is that Craig has now had three shots at Islam — two with Volk where the first fight was a master class with grappling — and we saw a taste of it with Jack against Belal (Muhammad), with a lot of those same ideologies working in that fight.
“Defensive jiu jitsu built for MMA” is what I have written down. “Craig’s system emphasizes positional survival, guard retention, and controlled stand-ups rather than sport-based attacks. Expect JDM to use frames, reverse hooks, knee shields to minimize damage and delay Islam’s positional advancements.”
I think we’ll see JDM implement a lot of the things that Craig does well — Granby rolls, octopus guard, and the hip escape chains — into his approach this weekend. The big picture impact is that this stuff can shorten control time, which can create more standups.
Kyte: Right. I think the part about it being defensive is really key.
Everything is about shutting stuff down and minimizing rather than looking for sweeps, looking for stuff off your back, and that’s such an interesting interplay between the two. It’s almost an acceptance of “cool, I got taken down, but you’re not getting anything off,” and that’s going to increase the chance of whoever the ref is standing them up because Islam isn’t likely to be passing or landing a ton of shots.
Nicksick: Yep.
Kyte: It’s “I’m not gonna make any mistakes that give you more time here.”
Nicksick: 100 percent. How do you address the grips? That’s what Volk did so well in the first fight: addressing the grips, turning and facing, digging an underhook.
We always say, “You have to be able to control the redirect,” and the way I coach it is I tell the guys that on the offensive attack, you have to get the opponent’s belly button to go perpendicular. Until that belly button goes in a different direction, you have to maintain defensive responsibilities on the re-shot.
If you can move them or get the belly button to go in a different direction, you’re good. I think that is gonna be very relevant for JDM.
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Kyte: Create space, get you off me.
Nicksick: If he’s not perpendicular, you’re missing a layer of defense.
Coach Follis used to always do this thing where he would walk up to you, stick his hand out, and shake your hand, and then ask you, “Why’d you shake my hand?” You’d say, “Because you stuck it out,” and he’d say, “It’s the same thing when guys go to over-under. Guys start from the over-under position because you’re so ingrained, trained to start from this position.”
Kyte: That’s how everyone practices pummeling and how we naturally lock up in those positions.
Nicksick: Absolutely, and Follis would say, “No, put a frame in front of him!”
Kyte: Right — don’t let him just have that position; stick a forearm in his face, in his throat, and get him off of you!
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Nicksick: Exactly!
Kyte: That’s too good.
I think this is a terrific fight, dude; I can’t wait. I’m so curious to see how things play out here.
Nicksick: Agreed. This is a big fight; it’s gonna be interesting.
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