Chael Sonnen gave a blunt assessment of Jack Della Maddalena’s night at UFC 322, and he made it clear he expected far more from the former welterweight champion during his title defense against Islam Makhachev.
On the ESPN broadcast following the event, Sonnen did not hide his frustration as he walked through the pace of the fight. His main criticism centered on how long it took for Della Maddalena to get started.
“I feel Jack underperformed. We were 10 minutes into that fight… Jack hasn’t thrown a punch yet,” Sonnen said while reviewing the bout. “20 minutes into this fight, he had thrown a total of 31 punches. Of those 31, only 20 of them landed and most of these were to the body. I was waiting for Jack to get going. It was the same position rinse and repeat.”
A dream come true 👏
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Sonnen added that none of Makhachev’s pressure was surprising, which made the low response from Della Maddalena even harder for him to understand.
“I appreciate a good double leg, the other side of that, I learned that in my first five minutes of wrestling practice,” he said.
Numbers tell the story
The official stats from the bout reflected what viewers saw.
Della Maddalena connected on 30 of 74 total strikes for the entire twenty five minutes. Makhachev had far more activity, landing 140 of 188 strikes, adding four takedowns and more than nineteen minutes of control.
The fight played out almost entirely on Makhachev’s terms, with Della Maddalena struggling to create space, win scrambles, or generate striking combinations that have defined his previous victories.
Anthony Smith echoes the same concerns
UFC analyst Anthony Smith also expressed confusion about Della Maddalena’s lack of urgency, especially once he began to fall behind.
“I was disappointed in Jack’s output, and his ability to get to his feet… Jack wasn’t doing enough to force Islam to have to work any harder,” Smith said. “He was very content to just hold the position. He chased a couple of submissions. He did not have to work too hard at it though.”
Smith explained that Della Maddalena is usually most dangerous when mixing targets and blending combinations, yet none of that rhythm appeared at MSG.
“Jack really never got going on his feet,” Smith said. “He only is successful when he punches in combinations, when he is switching stances in mid combination, when he is going to the body. He did absolutely none of that… Jack did not force him to have to get into second gear, so why would you?” via MMAFighting
The loss ends Della Maddalena’s title run and raises questions about how he will adjust after being controlled for nearly the entire match.
