Jack Della Maddalena faced a harsh reality in his first defense as UFC welterweight champion at UFC 322, and former champion Matt Brown believes his corner played a role in the outcome.
Against Islam Makhachev, Della Maddalena struggled to generate offense, landing only 18 significant strikes over five rounds while giving up four takedowns and spending more than 19 minutes under Makhachev’s control.
Brown was frustrated by the corner’s approach, which prioritized motivation over technical advice.
Corner Frustrations
“It seemed very odd to me like they were just trying to fire him up the whole time,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I said he could be as fired up as he wants, if he doesn’t start doing something different, it’s not going to help. He’s fighting hard as hell. He’s grimacing the whole time. He’s squeezing as hard as he can, fighting against those submissions as hard as he can. The guy is giving it his all. Telling him to give it more is not going to help a single thing. If anything, tell him to relax a little bit. One of the things I’m big on with cornering, it’s very difficult to stay in the moment. We always think about what happened in the last round. I think it’s a lot like golf. You can’t worry about where you just hit the ball. You have to worry about where you’re going to hit the ball next to get closer to the pin. If you’re sitting there thinking about your last shot, you’re just mentally f*cking yourself.”
Brown also commented on social media, calling the corner “terrible” while clarifying he was not trying to pile on.
Need For Technical Guidance
Brown noted that Della Maddalena’s corner rarely offered actionable advice to counter Makhachev’s wrestling.
“I would have loved to hear them say ‘hey, Jack sprawl your legs back when he comes in for a shot, stay heavy, have your hips heavy.’ Something along those lines,” Brown said. “Whether it would have helped or not, who knows. It’s one of those things, we don’t have any idea the dynamic between them as friends, their relationship as coaches. I try not to hate too much but in the moment when I was hearing it, and I posted on Twitter, it was just driving me nuts. I can’t listen to this. This is not the way to corner a guy at a high level. You’re in a championship fight against potentially the greatest of all-time, certainly one of the greatest of all-time. He’s absolutely in that conversation now. He has the potential to be the greatest of all-time. That’s not how you talk to a guy in the corner. He’s already the champion. He’s motivated to go out there and win the fight.”
Brown did praise grappling coach Craig Jones, who offered technical pointers between rounds, though even that guidance could not fully counter Makhachev’s repeated takedowns.
“I remember the one round Craig Jones came into the octagon, gave him a little bit of actual advice,” Brown said. “I don’t remember which was which but earlier in between rounds, it was Craig Jones and later on it was whatever other coach. Craig Jones was trying to give him real advice. It would be interesting to hear Craig’s take on that or his coaches’ take. I’d like to hear what they have to say, not just beat a dead horse on people that can’t defend themselves. I would like to hear their opinion, their thoughts on what their corner strategy was or what they were thinking or what they were trying to say.”
Defensive Focus
Brown observed that Della Maddalena seemed focused on survival rather than mounting offense.
“What it appeared just from the outside looking in and Jack is an amazing fighter, don’t want to take anything away from him, but what it appeared, he trained a lot to defend jiu-jitsu of Islam and survive,” Brown said. “It was amazing how he survived those submission attempts. Islam went for a few really good submission attempts and Jack was very crisp on his defense. It seemed like that was what he trained the most. Of course we have no idea, we’re just speculating but it did not appear he trained his wrestling much because he did not give hardly any resistance at all to Islam’s wrestling. I’ll tell you I made a similar mistake. When I fought Demian Maia, I did the exact same thing. I trained so much to defend Demian’s rear-naked choke specifically but other things too. What happened was, I ended up with him having my back most of the fight, and I defended it most of the fight. Actually, the only reason I ended up getting caught is I went for a kamikaze escape, 30 seconds left, you already lost the fight, nothing to lose but that was really the story of the fight. It felt to me like Jack made the same mistake that I made. I focused on what my opponent was doing and how to defend their offense versus how do I get some offense myself? But particularly with Jack just defending the wrestling. I was really surprised at how easy it was for Islam a lot of the times.”
Acknowledging Makhachev’s Skill
Brown emphasized that Makhachev is a uniquely challenging opponent that Della Maddalena had not experienced before.
“I tell you what it felt like to me, he had never felt someone like Islam before,” Brown said. “I don’t know who is in his camp. Craig Jones is a jiu-jitsu guy. One of the greatest of all time jiu-jitsu guys but that’s not Islam. It felt like he had never felt that kind of pressure before and wasn’t really sure how to handle it. It seemed like he had taken for granted his ability to get up. He certainly defended the submissions very well and you could see him trying many different ways, some clear Craig Jones ways of trying to stand up like octopus guard and different things like that. But it felt like he didn’t realize what he was in for. That speaks nothing but volumes about Islam Makhachev. The guy is something special, and there’s probably not that many people that have felt that kind of pressure before.” via MMAFighting
Despite the critique, Della Maddalena’s camp has responded publicly following UFC 322. His coach issued a statement acknowledging the loss and promising to return stronger. The team emphasized that they will analyze the fight, adjust strategies, and come back better prepared for future challenges in the welterweight division.
