May 12, 2025 • 20 mins
Wade breaks down Jack Della Maddalena's DOMINATE victory over Belal Muhammad at UFC 315!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Folks, we're back on the way concept presented by the
ring and I am in my girlfriend's place in North Carolina.
That's right, I said, girlfriend, not random girl in the
back of my videos, and not someone you need to
go in to in my comments.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You freak well.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Last night UFC three point fifteen went down and it
ended so late. I'm used to being on the West
Coast where by the time the card ends, it's only
ten o'clock.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Last night it was one.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I fell asleep, but I fell asleep happy, joyous that
MMA's damage is back as a priority. And last night
in the main event, balal Mohammad, Jack Dela Madalena, that
fight brought it all.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Back for me.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
It felt like a bit of a nostalgic mid two
thousands to maybe twenty ten to twenty sixteen era fight,
maybe twenty ten to twenty nineteen era fight. It felt
good to see an actual fight, not a contest one
just strictly by trying to win a match.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Right there brought me back to.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
What MMA I think should be, trying to win a fight,
not trying to win a contest. And the man that
won the fight and the contest was Jack Della Maddalena
upset city on Balmuhamad. A lot of people thought Balal
was going to do what Blal does to Jack Dela Madelena,
was going to wrestle him, was going to pressure him,
was gonna hold him against the cage, use that to
(01:23):
beat him up, put him on his back, pick him
back up, beat him up there, put him on his back,
beat him up and just beat this you know, Blall
type of fight pressure, not so much a ton of damage,
but in spots being able to really showcase what it
is that made Blaal champion, crazy pace, crazy pressure. And
you know in between that grappling mixed with the striking,
(01:43):
that is not what happened. Jack Della Madelena had an
answer for everything Balal did and some and his victory
is more important than you think.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
What do I mean the breakdown? Let's go all right?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So, like I said last night, you have s three fifteen,
couple things I want to talk about before we get
to that fight. Number one, Jose Aldo some controversy leading
up to his fight this week where he was fighting
for US A hobby's brother. I don't know his first name, sorry,
casual MMA fan at this point, but Jose missed weight
by a big amount. It was supposed to be one
hundred and thirty five pounds fight ends up being a
one hundred and forty five pounds and Josie Holdo was
(02:16):
thirty eight years old, and at this point it's like
anytime he steps in an octagon.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You're just happy that he's there.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
You're just happy that one of the legends of this
sport is still able to go out there and reminds
you of a time gone by. The longest time, Jose
Aldo was considered the best one hundred and forty five
pound fighter in the world, and some even considered him
pound for pound number one in the world until that
left hand from Connor and Gregor shook up the world right.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So it was just good to see Jose.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I know that again he missed the weight, but then
the fight start and even at thirty eight years old,
with all the stuff, the time off that Jose had taken,
he'd done some boxing and he came back the tough
fights he had had since losing the belt to Connor,
and then obviously the Max Holloway fights and Vulcan he's
fought everyone. Piodrian, he's fought him off with This fight
reminds you.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That he still had it.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Even if Jose's not his best, even if he's thirty
eight and he's got wear and tear and he's gone
through some wars, he still had it. Explosion, big time damage,
punches in, bunches to the body, the leg kicks were back.
He wasn't in that boxing stance anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
He was a high.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Guards shoulders rolled, but he was raising that lead knee
and his moy thie was looking good. And I see,
I thought he won the first and second round. Looked
like he was gonna win the third because he comes
out and goes ballistic with some punches I think a
knee to the face of the Hobby and then forced
him back.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
The Hobby was wibbled.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Then he saw the soccer kick again, his vintage Jose
Aldough knocked him back and it looked like he was
gonna finish the fight. He's a Hobby survived, and you know,
in the last two and a half minutes of that
third round, Za Hobby was able to mount a bit
of a comeback and ended up getting the victory. He
congrats to Hobby. I'm not upset about it. Whatever he
gets to win. But what I am upset about, and
(03:55):
not really but kind of. It's a bittersweet thing is
that Jose Aldough essentially in that moment, retired, put his
gloves down and then stepped to the side of the
octagon and said, I just can't do it anymore. The
weight cut was part of that. It's just I don't
have the mind of a fighter, right. I'm not looking
to go in there and dedicate myself like I would.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Have, you know, five ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And that's when you know it's real, right when you
start hearing guys talk about retirement and they're talking about
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Have the will to do this anymore. That's when I
believe that they will stay retired. Maybe maybe not. Maybe
Jose comes back in a year, you know, the whole mma.
Retirement's never actually a retirement thing. Maybe he comes back.
I don't know, but it was. It was bittersweet.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Shout out to Jose Aldo, one of my goats, and
I hope he does well. Outside of that, we had
some good fights the co main event. Shipchenko did her thing,
kept her belt. That was cool to see. He had
Natalia Silva piecing up Alexa Grosso off the back foot.
Some people were calling it Devin Haney esque. I don't
think it was quite there, but all in all, obviously
(04:56):
this card was built around the main event and the
main event and had some high.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Stakes attached to it. Now, I ain't talking medium rare.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I mean the winner of this fight between Balal Mohammed
and Jack Dela Madelena was going to determine a lot
of the roads that the UFC is going to go
with their biggest fights this year. Let me lay it
out for you. If you didn't know, you probably did.
Let's say Balal Mohammed beat Jack Dela Madeleine, he was
going to stay and defend his title at one hundred
and seventy pounds, which means Islam Makachev was going to
stay at one hundred and fifty five pounds because they
(05:23):
have some sort of brother like relationship, they don't want.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
To fight each other.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So with that being said, if that were to happen,
Islam stays at one fifty five and we see Islam
versus Ilia Tupori at one fifty five and Balal stays
the champ at one seventy, well, obviously not what happened.
We're going to talk about it. Jack Dela Madelena wins.
Islam has been talking about moving up for the last
couple of years of his career. Let's be honest. At
one fifty five, he has pretty much beaten every single
(05:47):
contender that you could potentially imagine him fighting at this moment.
Maybe he go and have him fight Justin Gaichi or
you know, somebody else, but outside of the people moving
into the division, he has sort of beaten everyone. So
I wouldn't be mad at him jumping to one seven and.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
He's called for it.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
If Balall loses and he's not the champion, I'm gonna
go up and I'm gonna fight Jack Dela Badelena, Which
leaves us without Islam versus Ilia Tuporia at one fifty five,
but it does give us an opportunity to see Ilia
versus Charles Lavera at one fifty five. I don't know
if the UFC is going to make Islam give up
his belt at one fifty five.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I don't know if they're going to allow him to
do the two belt thing.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I'm pretty sure it was said or rumored that they
made Ilia Tuporia give up one hundred and forty five
pound belt to move to one fifty five. Maybe they're
not prioritizing the double champ thing anymore. I don't know,
But the point is there was a lot riding on
this fight for both fighters, which is obviously the point
in every championship fight, but this one not just for
those two, for the entirety of the one to seventy
and one to fifty five divisions.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
But let's get to the fight.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So what happened in this fight I thought was a
masterful execution from Jack dela Madelena of his game plan
and a lack of adherence to what you would think
Blal's game plan would be coming into this fight, which
I think was a massive part of why the fight
went the way it went. You heard balama A all
week and really since this fight was made talking about
(07:03):
how he was going to show Canelo hands Canelo hans
and I think he has heard a lot of the
criticisms from the MMA fan base about his style and
about how it's you know, quote unquote boring and he's
a walking decision and he can't finish anyone. Although he
did finish Yan Brady that was a pretty massive win
for him. You get the point you've seen a Blall fight,
you kind of know what it is. It's again a
mix of grappling and striking, heavy on the grappling, heavy
(07:26):
on the pressure. There's a lot of fighters like this
in the UFC right now. You know Rob fights this way.
Habib used to fight that way. It's kind of that same,
you know.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Death by pressure style of fighting. Right. So when the
first round.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Started and I saw blalal Mohammed not looking to pressure
forward instead to really just control center of the octagon,
and Jack Dela Madalena not feeling that pressure, not feeling
that Belall was trying to get to his legs or
trying to push him up against the cage instead looking
to strike with him at range.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I went, oh, no, yeah, this.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Is this is the worst idea possible. You can't stand
with a strike or like Jack Dela Madelena and expect
to win those exchanges unless it's out of pure hubris
or pride. And that's what Ballall kind of did, right.
And this isn't to say that Blall didn't have a
good fight. He had a great fight, right, He landed
some stuff in moments, But you're talking about going strike
for strike with one of the best boxers combination strikers,
(08:18):
you know kicks and boxing, combination striking, kicks and hands
strikers in the world, let alone, just one hundred and
seventy pounds of issues and doing it against a guy
in Jack Dela Madelena that struggled in the grappling department
versus Gilbert Burns. You really thought a guy like Ballall
would take advantage of that. He is a better grappler
(08:38):
than Gilbert Burns, and he just didn't do it in
fair play. There were moments where he tried. I think
he was three for nine on takedowns, but Craig Jones
being in the corner of Jack Dela Madelena, you saw
the adjustments. You saw him stay on his feet, You
saw him give different looks to the takedown than switch first,
he would look to control the lead hand of Blall
when he tried to shoot in or level change and
get his head down to be able to stuff the
(08:59):
takedown with just his shoulder and head frame. Or see
him work to a two on one on the wrist
and then flip his hips, get an underhook and circle out.
There was a lot of things that Jack Della Matt
Atlena was doing that was tough for Blall to just
get his hands on him. So it isn't just all
Ballall didn't do it. There were things Jack was doing
as well. But in the first round I thought Jack
looked so comfortable, man. I thought he was just giving
(09:20):
so many different looks to Ballall, Like just the feints
he was giving him. He was showing him the uppercut
faint and then he was even faint like he was
gonna to throw a take down. And in between those
he was switching stances and he was touching Balall with
the backhand bang off the south popposition. He was controlling
the action. He was controlling and dictating the pace of
where the striking was going to happen and how it
was gonna happen. That was the biggest part of this fight.
(09:42):
He was controlling how. And when we go to the
second round and more of the same, I thought Blall
again was landing in moments, but Jack was just so
much more damaging. It was the step in elbows, it
was the counters off the back foot. He was throwing
in between the throws of balal Muhammad, which is the
mark of a high level striker. When you're being pressured
(10:02):
or you're seeing combinations come at you, and you're not
just shelling up and you're not just looking for them
to stop so that you're turned to strike again, but
you're looking in between those moments to throw something. As
a shot whizzes by your head, moves bang and you
touch them, bang, touch them again and pivot out. That's
the sign of a high level striker and someone that
looks for damage inside the damage. That's the next level,
(10:25):
that's the seventh layer of hair. As Kobe Covington would say.
The second round I thought went to Jack dela Atalanta too,
which again just damage, just creative striking damage, stuff that
you want to see out of who we consider the
best fighter on the planet. We go into round three.
Round three is a little a little bit controversial for
people because people some people thought that this was another
(10:46):
round to Jack dela Matalana. I personally thought it was
a close round and I could have I think I
even gave it to balal Mohammed because of his increased
work rate. Jack was still landing and still landing damaging punches,
but Ballall was starting to do what I thought he
should have done earlier. In the fight, which was step
on the gas pedal, pressure Jack against the cage and
use that grappling pressure that space that he's taking up
(11:08):
to then get into his striking right, shoot for the legs,
do something to level change, then come back upstairs with
the combinations and land your punches.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
This was a round I.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Thought where Lall finally got back to what I thought
he was going to do in this fight, and it
was successful to a degree. He was still eating a
ton of punches. He was having to essentially walk through
fire to get to the promised land, and someone lied
to him because the promised land wasn't there. But he
was doing his best and he was getting butchered in
the process. But he had I thought a better round here,
(11:39):
and honestly I thought he outstruck Jack in this third round.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
But it was close.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
If you said to me, Jack won this round off
the back foot by being more precise and landing the
more damaging shots out of the two of them. And
then again you factor in I think there was a
one takedown where Laull got to his back for a
certain minute and then Jack immediately got back to his feet.
So do he factor in any of the grappling in
those exchanges. Maybe maybe not. I could see this being
another Jack Dela Mata laying around, and if you said
(12:04):
that to me, I'd be like, yeah, I could see
where you could get that. But I went the other
way and said, you know what, I think Blall did
enough in this round, in a back and forth round
to steal it going into the fourth and in the
fourth this was probably Belall's best round, building off the
momentum at the end of the third, Especially at the
end of the third, Blaw was starting to come on
a lot more strong. The fourth round was vintage bal Muhammed,
(12:24):
and again he wasn't just winning this round going away.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Jack never got washed out of a round. He lost
this round.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
You could argue he didn't even lose the one before it,
but he lost this one. But it wasn't like some
big wash. He was still tagging Blall with shots. He
was still making Blall feel what it meant to get
to where he needed to get to, Like you're gonna
have to earn that shit by getting your lips split open.
I think he met a fractured Blall's orbital bone. They
were cuts and bruises, broken nose like Jack's nose looks
(12:51):
like someone squished a banana in the hot summer day.
But after this fight, Blaws looked like my investment portfolio
after Crypto.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Win in the shitter. It was up and down and
eventually just kind of caved in.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
But I guess the point I'm making in the fourth
was this was the belaw that I thought you may
see early in the fight, because again, it was pressure,
it was grappling to strike, it was striking a grapple.
He was mixing things up, he was back on his jab,
he was landing right hands. He was damaging the right
eye of Jack. Dela Mattlana left it pretty swollen there.
But this was the most I saw Blall look like
(13:24):
the version of him that you thought could win this fight,
if that's the easiest way to put it, And a
combination of those things could be because he finally got
to a position where Jack was a little more tired,
so he could enter the exchanges and maybe take some
of those punches that weren't hurting him as bad as
they were early on. Or maybe he was getting to
him before Jack could really get the countershots off, and
he was closing the distance so that the kicks to
(13:44):
the body and the leg kicks.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Weren't as effective.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
They weren't really there in that fourth round because Jack
just didn't have the space to operate. And that's part
of the biggest reason Blall is so successful is he
eats up space. He doesn't give you any time to think, breathe,
or operate because he's right in your face from the
moment they say go. And he just wasn't in this fight.
And again, I think that's credit to Jack Dela Madelaine
and his game plan to keep Ballall at range to
(14:08):
keep him from being successful and close, which you know
mentally goes, okay, well, if I'm not successful there, then
I need to stay out here because every time I
try to get there, this dude is butchering me up
like the freaking chop shop down the road. And that
was such a great execution of the game plan from
Dela Madaline's team, and it kept on notice right, it
kept him at range, and it kept him thinking about
(14:30):
what happens when he tries to get to the positions
where he's going to be successful. In the fourth round,
I think he just said fuck it, like I'm just
gonna go and he did and had more success there,
but again started toward the end of the round to
eat more punches and eat those combinations that Jack is
just so good at snapping off. Again, he starts in Orthodox,
then he flips to South Pond, he's back in Orthodox.
All the while he's striking you and haagging you with punches.
(14:51):
So I thought Balla won the fourth. And again if
you go to the fifth round thinking Blah won the fourth,
and here's someone like me that thought he might have
skated out the third round as well to fight, and
even two of the judges on the scorecards saw it
this way. Again, if you thought it was three to
one at this point, perfectly fine as well. But regardless,
this is still a round that you need to win
for either fighter to solidify I am the champion of
(15:14):
this division. And so many times when you get a
challenger coming in against a champion who's done it, who's
been there, they don't understand the importance of championship rounds
or of you have to beat the champion to be
the champion. I don't think it should be that way,
but it kind of is that way. You really need
to definitively go in there and outclass, out damage, and
just completely have a better performance than the champion, if
(15:35):
not stop him, obviously, but if you can't do that
and leave no doubt that you did come in and
take the belt from the champ. And in this fifth round,
that's exactly what Jack Dela Mattaalana did. Like again, Blall
thought he was gonna come out in this fifth and
continue the work he did in the fourth, and it
just wasn't the case. Jack found a different gear and
he this is what I was talking about with that spike.
(15:55):
I know in the corners they were saying that Jack
was up, and his corner was telling him, you know
you're gonna win the the World championship. Just win this
fifth round. But what that fifth round was about winning
the world Championship. Jack went out there to try to
butcher ballall and try to really get him out of there.
In the fifth round, he was hitting him with everything
in the kitchen sink. It would have been maybe one
of these fucking lamps in this room as well. He
threw everything at Belag and it was working. He was
(16:18):
tagging him out of the south pop position, jab left
hand to step in elbows At one point, I don't
know if this was even the fifth round, but it
was so sick. He hit Ballall with an elbow, rolled
under a ball right hand, snapped off another elbow behind it,
rolled underneath, tagging him with the jab out of orthodox.
It was vicious, but it was poetic. I don't know
(16:38):
how to really describe it. It was just satisfying to watch,
and not because of the stuff about Ballall and the
memes online or none of that. It was just fun
to watch a damage priority fighter and quite frankly a
striker do what you want to see, which is going
there and fight. And Jack did that in the fifth round.
I thought he really came away with that victory and
(16:59):
again did everything he needed to do. Damn near stopped
Ballall at one point in the fifth round, but he
was just all over him. So the fight ends and
you hear a new congratulations to Jack Dela Madaline. And
after that I thought it was a bit weird some
of the stuff that I saw on social media from
Islam Makijev. Now was that Islam Makichev? Was that Ali?
Twitter fingers going crazy?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
First?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Obviously again if it is him, it could have been Ali.
You know, consoles Ballall for the loss and then immediately
is like, yeah, now time to get my second belt.
Like Ball's not even in the locker room yet, like
he doesn't even have the tape off his hands, and
Islam's like, ah, my turn, that's your brother. I thought
that was an odd way to go about it, Like
he put two or three different tweets out there, and
then I think even a video out there as well
last night. And I get it. You know, you're excited
(17:41):
for your opportunity, but damn, let my man Bill all
agrieve a little bit, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It's supposed to be your bro. Anyway.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I think that's what is next. I think it's what
we all know. I think there's a video out Leo
maybe you can find it of Jack Dela Madalina talking
to Dana White about what's next and he says, I
want Islam in Perth. Obviously Jack is Australian, that would
be fuck he's it.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But yeah, there it is.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
What a win, What a performance for Jack Dela Madelana,
and what a reminder to MMA fan that yes, there
is an answer to the heavy pressure grappling style of MMA,
because for the longest time, the dagistanis have had a
control on it. And obviously you know there's other facets
of it like Morob the Georgia's style, and obviously Belah
has a bit of that as well. But you're starting
(18:23):
to see, just like in all times, in this sport,
the cycles, the waves are starting to change. First it
was the grapplers that dominated with the American wrestling style
and the ground and pound and the Tito Wortez and
Matt Hughes and those guys. And then it became a
striking sport where George Saint Pierre, even with his takedowns,
he was still a karate guy that came through. That
(18:43):
was George's introduction. And then Anderson Silva and the Connor
mcgregors and the John Jones and Anderson Silva's and the
Connor mcgregors. And while John was a great wrestler, he
started to come in to be a true mixed martial
artist and all of those things even help Steve A.
Miochich when he was the heavyweight chan Israel out of
Sun and we can keep going. All these things they
come in waves, and you're starting to see the wave
(19:04):
of the dominant Dagastani wrestling potentially oh by the wayside
of it, and I do have to credit one man
for that, and yes it is Jack Dela Madelena for now,
but it's also Craig Jones, because anytime Craig Jones is
in a camp with some of these fighters that are
going against predominantly high level wrestlers, he has an answer
for it, and especially against the Dagistani kind of again
or what you want to call it, the caucus style wrestling.
(19:27):
He had an answer for it the first volk in
Islam Maka Chief fight and an answer for it tonight.
Very interested. Does he have an answer for it being
in the corner of Jack Dela Madalena when Islam does
come up to one seventy. That's a discussion for another time. Listen,
we're gonna have videos coming out all week this week,
even from North Carolina. I may be traveling again in
the next couple of days or the Ring magazine. Keep
(19:48):
your eyes on that. We're coming back tomorrow. I think
with some many Pakiao talk because I can't believe it's
coming out of retirement and fighting it for a world
championship belt. More thoughts on that tomorrow, But you guys,
let me know what you think. Down, how did you
think UFC three point fifteen went, and how are you
feeling about your new champion at one hundred and seventy pounds,
Jack Della Maddelene promises to bring damage and I believe in.
(20:10):
But credit to below, Mohmand fought a good fight as well.
I don't think the boring accusations can go on with
the way he fought. But a hell of a fight,
you guys. Let me know what you think down below,
because for what happens next at one seventy at one
fifty five with the UFC, I don't have those answers,
but I guess we'll find out
Folks, we're back on the way concept presented by the
ring and I am in my girlfriend's place in North Carolina.
That's right, I said, girlfriend, not random girl in the
back of my videos, and not someone you need to
go in to in my comments.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You freak well.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Last night UFC three point fifteen went down and it
ended so late. I'm used to being on the West
Coast where by the time the card ends, it's only
ten o'clock.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Last night it was one.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I fell asleep, but I fell asleep happy, joyous that
MMA's damage is back as a priority. And last night
in the main event, balal Mohammad, Jack Dela Madalena, that
fight brought it all.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Back for me.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
It felt like a bit of a nostalgic mid two
thousands to maybe twenty ten to twenty sixteen era fight,
maybe twenty ten to twenty nineteen era fight. It felt
good to see an actual fight, not a contest one
just strictly by trying to win a match.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Right there brought me back to.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
What MMA I think should be, trying to win a fight,
not trying to win a contest. And the man that
won the fight and the contest was Jack Della Maddalena
upset city on Balmuhamad. A lot of people thought Balal
was going to do what Blal does to Jack Dela Madelena,
was going to wrestle him, was going to pressure him,
was gonna hold him against the cage, use that to
(01:23):
beat him up, put him on his back, pick him
back up, beat him up there, put him on his back,
beat him up and just beat this you know, Blall
type of fight pressure, not so much a ton of damage,
but in spots being able to really showcase what it
is that made Blaal champion, crazy pace, crazy pressure. And
you know in between that grappling mixed with the striking,
(01:43):
that is not what happened. Jack Della Madelena had an
answer for everything Balal did and some and his victory
is more important than you think.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
What do I mean the breakdown? Let's go all right?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So, like I said last night, you have s three fifteen,
couple things I want to talk about before we get
to that fight. Number one, Jose Aldo some controversy leading
up to his fight this week where he was fighting
for US A hobby's brother. I don't know his first name, sorry,
casual MMA fan at this point, but Jose missed weight
by a big amount. It was supposed to be one
hundred and thirty five pounds fight ends up being a
one hundred and forty five pounds and Josie Holdo was
(02:16):
thirty eight years old, and at this point it's like
anytime he steps in an octagon.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You're just happy that he's there.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
You're just happy that one of the legends of this
sport is still able to go out there and reminds
you of a time gone by. The longest time, Jose
Aldo was considered the best one hundred and forty five
pound fighter in the world, and some even considered him
pound for pound number one in the world until that
left hand from Connor and Gregor shook up the world right.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So it was just good to see Jose.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I know that again he missed the weight, but then
the fight start and even at thirty eight years old,
with all the stuff, the time off that Jose had taken,
he'd done some boxing and he came back the tough
fights he had had since losing the belt to Connor,
and then obviously the Max Holloway fights and Vulcan he's
fought everyone. Piodrian, he's fought him off with This fight
reminds you.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That he still had it.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Even if Jose's not his best, even if he's thirty
eight and he's got wear and tear and he's gone
through some wars, he still had it. Explosion, big time damage,
punches in, bunches to the body, the leg kicks were back.
He wasn't in that boxing stance anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
He was a high.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Guards shoulders rolled, but he was raising that lead knee
and his moy thie was looking good. And I see,
I thought he won the first and second round. Looked
like he was gonna win the third because he comes
out and goes ballistic with some punches I think a
knee to the face of the Hobby and then forced
him back.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
The Hobby was wibbled.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Then he saw the soccer kick again, his vintage Jose
Aldough knocked him back and it looked like he was
gonna finish the fight. He's a Hobby survived, and you know,
in the last two and a half minutes of that
third round, Za Hobby was able to mount a bit
of a comeback and ended up getting the victory. He
congrats to Hobby. I'm not upset about it. Whatever he
gets to win. But what I am upset about, and
(03:55):
not really but kind of. It's a bittersweet thing is
that Jose Aldough essentially in that moment, retired, put his
gloves down and then stepped to the side of the
octagon and said, I just can't do it anymore. The
weight cut was part of that. It's just I don't
have the mind of a fighter, right. I'm not looking
to go in there and dedicate myself like I would.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Have, you know, five ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And that's when you know it's real, right when you
start hearing guys talk about retirement and they're talking about
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Have the will to do this anymore. That's when I
believe that they will stay retired. Maybe maybe not. Maybe
Jose comes back in a year, you know, the whole mma.
Retirement's never actually a retirement thing. Maybe he comes back.
I don't know, but it was. It was bittersweet.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Shout out to Jose Aldo, one of my goats, and
I hope he does well. Outside of that, we had
some good fights the co main event. Shipchenko did her thing,
kept her belt. That was cool to see. He had
Natalia Silva piecing up Alexa Grosso off the back foot.
Some people were calling it Devin Haney esque. I don't
think it was quite there, but all in all, obviously
(04:56):
this card was built around the main event and the
main event and had some high.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Stakes attached to it. Now, I ain't talking medium rare.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I mean the winner of this fight between Balal Mohammed
and Jack Dela Madelena was going to determine a lot
of the roads that the UFC is going to go
with their biggest fights this year. Let me lay it
out for you. If you didn't know, you probably did.
Let's say Balal Mohammed beat Jack Dela Madeleine, he was
going to stay and defend his title at one hundred
and seventy pounds, which means Islam Makachev was going to
stay at one hundred and fifty five pounds because they
(05:23):
have some sort of brother like relationship, they don't want.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
To fight each other.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So with that being said, if that were to happen,
Islam stays at one fifty five and we see Islam
versus Ilia Tupori at one fifty five and Balal stays
the champ at one seventy, well, obviously not what happened.
We're going to talk about it. Jack Dela Madelena wins.
Islam has been talking about moving up for the last
couple of years of his career. Let's be honest. At
one fifty five, he has pretty much beaten every single
(05:47):
contender that you could potentially imagine him fighting at this moment.
Maybe he go and have him fight Justin Gaichi or
you know, somebody else, but outside of the people moving
into the division, he has sort of beaten everyone. So
I wouldn't be mad at him jumping to one seven and.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
He's called for it.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
If Balall loses and he's not the champion, I'm gonna
go up and I'm gonna fight Jack Dela Badelena, Which
leaves us without Islam versus Ilia Tuporia at one fifty five,
but it does give us an opportunity to see Ilia
versus Charles Lavera at one fifty five. I don't know
if the UFC is going to make Islam give up
his belt at one fifty five.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I don't know if they're going to allow him to
do the two belt thing.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I'm pretty sure it was said or rumored that they
made Ilia Tuporia give up one hundred and forty five
pound belt to move to one fifty five. Maybe they're
not prioritizing the double champ thing anymore. I don't know,
But the point is there was a lot riding on
this fight for both fighters, which is obviously the point
in every championship fight, but this one not just for
those two, for the entirety of the one to seventy
and one to fifty five divisions.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
But let's get to the fight.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So what happened in this fight I thought was a
masterful execution from Jack dela Madelena of his game plan
and a lack of adherence to what you would think
Blal's game plan would be coming into this fight, which
I think was a massive part of why the fight
went the way it went. You heard balama A all
week and really since this fight was made talking about
(07:03):
how he was going to show Canelo hands Canelo hans
and I think he has heard a lot of the
criticisms from the MMA fan base about his style and
about how it's you know, quote unquote boring and he's
a walking decision and he can't finish anyone. Although he
did finish Yan Brady that was a pretty massive win
for him. You get the point you've seen a Blall fight,
you kind of know what it is. It's again a
mix of grappling and striking, heavy on the grappling, heavy
(07:26):
on the pressure. There's a lot of fighters like this
in the UFC right now. You know Rob fights this way.
Habib used to fight that way. It's kind of that same,
you know.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Death by pressure style of fighting. Right. So when the
first round.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Started and I saw blalal Mohammed not looking to pressure
forward instead to really just control center of the octagon,
and Jack Dela Madalena not feeling that pressure, not feeling
that Belall was trying to get to his legs or
trying to push him up against the cage instead looking
to strike with him at range.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I went, oh, no, yeah, this.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Is this is the worst idea possible. You can't stand
with a strike or like Jack Dela Madelena and expect
to win those exchanges unless it's out of pure hubris
or pride. And that's what Ballall kind of did, right.
And this isn't to say that Blall didn't have a
good fight. He had a great fight, right, He landed
some stuff in moments, But you're talking about going strike
for strike with one of the best boxers combination strikers,
(08:18):
you know kicks and boxing, combination striking, kicks and hands
strikers in the world, let alone, just one hundred and
seventy pounds of issues and doing it against a guy
in Jack Dela Madelena that struggled in the grappling department
versus Gilbert Burns. You really thought a guy like Ballall
would take advantage of that. He is a better grappler
(08:38):
than Gilbert Burns, and he just didn't do it in
fair play. There were moments where he tried. I think
he was three for nine on takedowns, but Craig Jones
being in the corner of Jack Dela Madelena, you saw
the adjustments. You saw him stay on his feet, You
saw him give different looks to the takedown than switch first,
he would look to control the lead hand of Blall
when he tried to shoot in or level change and
get his head down to be able to stuff the
(08:59):
takedown with just his shoulder and head frame. Or see
him work to a two on one on the wrist
and then flip his hips, get an underhook and circle out.
There was a lot of things that Jack Della Matt
Atlena was doing that was tough for Blall to just
get his hands on him. So it isn't just all
Ballall didn't do it. There were things Jack was doing
as well. But in the first round I thought Jack
looked so comfortable, man. I thought he was just giving
(09:20):
so many different looks to Ballall, Like just the feints
he was giving him. He was showing him the uppercut
faint and then he was even faint like he was
gonna to throw a take down. And in between those
he was switching stances and he was touching Balall with
the backhand bang off the south popposition. He was controlling
the action. He was controlling and dictating the pace of
where the striking was going to happen and how it
was gonna happen. That was the biggest part of this fight.
(09:42):
He was controlling how. And when we go to the
second round and more of the same, I thought Blall
again was landing in moments, but Jack was just so
much more damaging. It was the step in elbows, it
was the counters off the back foot. He was throwing
in between the throws of balal Muhammad, which is the
mark of a high level striker. When you're being pressured
(10:02):
or you're seeing combinations come at you, and you're not
just shelling up and you're not just looking for them
to stop so that you're turned to strike again, but
you're looking in between those moments to throw something. As
a shot whizzes by your head, moves bang and you
touch them, bang, touch them again and pivot out. That's
the sign of a high level striker and someone that
looks for damage inside the damage. That's the next level,
(10:25):
that's the seventh layer of hair. As Kobe Covington would say.
The second round I thought went to Jack dela Atalanta too,
which again just damage, just creative striking damage, stuff that
you want to see out of who we consider the
best fighter on the planet. We go into round three.
Round three is a little a little bit controversial for
people because people some people thought that this was another
(10:46):
round to Jack dela Matalana. I personally thought it was
a close round and I could have I think I
even gave it to balal Mohammed because of his increased
work rate. Jack was still landing and still landing damaging punches,
but Ballall was starting to do what I thought he
should have done earlier. In the fight, which was step
on the gas pedal, pressure Jack against the cage and
use that grappling pressure that space that he's taking up
(11:08):
to then get into his striking right, shoot for the legs,
do something to level change, then come back upstairs with
the combinations and land your punches.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
This was a round I.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Thought where Lall finally got back to what I thought
he was going to do in this fight, and it
was successful to a degree. He was still eating a
ton of punches. He was having to essentially walk through
fire to get to the promised land, and someone lied
to him because the promised land wasn't there. But he
was doing his best and he was getting butchered in
the process. But he had I thought a better round here,
(11:39):
and honestly I thought he outstruck Jack in this third round.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
But it was close.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
If you said to me, Jack won this round off
the back foot by being more precise and landing the
more damaging shots out of the two of them. And
then again you factor in I think there was a
one takedown where Laull got to his back for a
certain minute and then Jack immediately got back to his feet.
So do he factor in any of the grappling in
those exchanges. Maybe maybe not. I could see this being
another Jack Dela Mata laying around, and if you said
(12:04):
that to me, I'd be like, yeah, I could see
where you could get that. But I went the other
way and said, you know what, I think Blall did
enough in this round, in a back and forth round
to steal it going into the fourth and in the
fourth this was probably Belall's best round, building off the
momentum at the end of the third, Especially at the
end of the third, Blaw was starting to come on
a lot more strong. The fourth round was vintage bal Muhammed,
(12:24):
and again he wasn't just winning this round going away.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Jack never got washed out of a round. He lost
this round.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
You could argue he didn't even lose the one before it,
but he lost this one. But it wasn't like some
big wash. He was still tagging Blall with shots. He
was still making Blall feel what it meant to get
to where he needed to get to, Like you're gonna
have to earn that shit by getting your lips split open.
I think he met a fractured Blall's orbital bone. They
were cuts and bruises, broken nose like Jack's nose looks
(12:51):
like someone squished a banana in the hot summer day.
But after this fight, Blaws looked like my investment portfolio
after Crypto.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Win in the shitter. It was up and down and
eventually just kind of caved in.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
But I guess the point I'm making in the fourth
was this was the belaw that I thought you may
see early in the fight, because again, it was pressure,
it was grappling to strike, it was striking a grapple.
He was mixing things up, he was back on his jab,
he was landing right hands. He was damaging the right
eye of Jack. Dela Mattlana left it pretty swollen there.
But this was the most I saw Blall look like
(13:24):
the version of him that you thought could win this fight,
if that's the easiest way to put it, And a
combination of those things could be because he finally got
to a position where Jack was a little more tired,
so he could enter the exchanges and maybe take some
of those punches that weren't hurting him as bad as
they were early on. Or maybe he was getting to
him before Jack could really get the countershots off, and
he was closing the distance so that the kicks to
(13:44):
the body and the leg kicks.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Weren't as effective.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
They weren't really there in that fourth round because Jack
just didn't have the space to operate. And that's part
of the biggest reason Blall is so successful is he
eats up space. He doesn't give you any time to think, breathe,
or operate because he's right in your face from the
moment they say go. And he just wasn't in this fight.
And again, I think that's credit to Jack Dela Madelaine
and his game plan to keep Ballall at range to
(14:08):
keep him from being successful and close, which you know
mentally goes, okay, well, if I'm not successful there, then
I need to stay out here because every time I
try to get there, this dude is butchering me up
like the freaking chop shop down the road. And that
was such a great execution of the game plan from
Dela Madaline's team, and it kept on notice right, it
kept him at range, and it kept him thinking about
(14:30):
what happens when he tries to get to the positions
where he's going to be successful. In the fourth round,
I think he just said fuck it, like I'm just
gonna go and he did and had more success there,
but again started toward the end of the round to
eat more punches and eat those combinations that Jack is
just so good at snapping off. Again, he starts in Orthodox,
then he flips to South Pond, he's back in Orthodox.
All the while he's striking you and haagging you with punches.
(14:51):
So I thought Balla won the fourth. And again if
you go to the fifth round thinking Blah won the fourth,
and here's someone like me that thought he might have
skated out the third round as well to fight, and
even two of the judges on the scorecards saw it
this way. Again, if you thought it was three to
one at this point, perfectly fine as well. But regardless,
this is still a round that you need to win
for either fighter to solidify I am the champion of
(15:14):
this division. And so many times when you get a
challenger coming in against a champion who's done it, who's
been there, they don't understand the importance of championship rounds
or of you have to beat the champion to be
the champion. I don't think it should be that way,
but it kind of is that way. You really need
to definitively go in there and outclass, out damage, and
just completely have a better performance than the champion, if
(15:35):
not stop him, obviously, but if you can't do that
and leave no doubt that you did come in and
take the belt from the champ. And in this fifth round,
that's exactly what Jack Dela Mattaalana did. Like again, Blall
thought he was gonna come out in this fifth and
continue the work he did in the fourth, and it
just wasn't the case. Jack found a different gear and
he this is what I was talking about with that spike.
(15:55):
I know in the corners they were saying that Jack
was up, and his corner was telling him, you know
you're gonna win the the World championship. Just win this
fifth round. But what that fifth round was about winning
the world Championship. Jack went out there to try to
butcher ballall and try to really get him out of there.
In the fifth round, he was hitting him with everything
in the kitchen sink. It would have been maybe one
of these fucking lamps in this room as well. He
threw everything at Belag and it was working. He was
(16:18):
tagging him out of the south pop position, jab left
hand to step in elbows At one point, I don't
know if this was even the fifth round, but it
was so sick. He hit Ballall with an elbow, rolled
under a ball right hand, snapped off another elbow behind it,
rolled underneath, tagging him with the jab out of orthodox.
It was vicious, but it was poetic. I don't know
(16:38):
how to really describe it. It was just satisfying to watch,
and not because of the stuff about Ballall and the
memes online or none of that. It was just fun
to watch a damage priority fighter and quite frankly a
striker do what you want to see, which is going
there and fight. And Jack did that in the fifth round.
I thought he really came away with that victory and
(16:59):
again did everything he needed to do. Damn near stopped
Ballall at one point in the fifth round, but he
was just all over him. So the fight ends and
you hear a new congratulations to Jack Dela Madaline. And
after that I thought it was a bit weird some
of the stuff that I saw on social media from
Islam Makijev. Now was that Islam Makichev? Was that Ali?
Twitter fingers going crazy?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
First?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Obviously again if it is him, it could have been Ali.
You know, consoles Ballall for the loss and then immediately
is like, yeah, now time to get my second belt.
Like Ball's not even in the locker room yet, like
he doesn't even have the tape off his hands, and
Islam's like, ah, my turn, that's your brother. I thought
that was an odd way to go about it, Like
he put two or three different tweets out there, and
then I think even a video out there as well
last night. And I get it. You know, you're excited
(17:41):
for your opportunity, but damn, let my man Bill all
agrieve a little bit, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It's supposed to be your bro. Anyway.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I think that's what is next. I think it's what
we all know. I think there's a video out Leo
maybe you can find it of Jack Dela Madalina talking
to Dana White about what's next and he says, I
want Islam in Perth. Obviously Jack is Australian, that would
be fuck he's it.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But yeah, there it is.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
What a win, What a performance for Jack Dela Madelana,
and what a reminder to MMA fan that yes, there
is an answer to the heavy pressure grappling style of MMA,
because for the longest time, the dagistanis have had a
control on it. And obviously you know there's other facets
of it like Morob the Georgia's style, and obviously Belah
has a bit of that as well. But you're starting
(18:23):
to see, just like in all times, in this sport,
the cycles, the waves are starting to change. First it
was the grapplers that dominated with the American wrestling style
and the ground and pound and the Tito Wortez and
Matt Hughes and those guys. And then it became a
striking sport where George Saint Pierre, even with his takedowns,
he was still a karate guy that came through. That
(18:43):
was George's introduction. And then Anderson Silva and the Connor
mcgregors and the John Jones and Anderson Silva's and the
Connor mcgregors. And while John was a great wrestler, he
started to come in to be a true mixed martial
artist and all of those things even help Steve A.
Miochich when he was the heavyweight chan Israel out of
Sun and we can keep going. All these things they
come in waves, and you're starting to see the wave
(19:04):
of the dominant Dagastani wrestling potentially oh by the wayside
of it, and I do have to credit one man
for that, and yes it is Jack Dela Madelena for now,
but it's also Craig Jones, because anytime Craig Jones is
in a camp with some of these fighters that are
going against predominantly high level wrestlers, he has an answer
for it, and especially against the Dagistani kind of again
or what you want to call it, the caucus style wrestling.
(19:27):
He had an answer for it the first volk in
Islam Maka Chief fight and an answer for it tonight.
Very interested. Does he have an answer for it being
in the corner of Jack Dela Madalena when Islam does
come up to one seventy. That's a discussion for another time. Listen,
we're gonna have videos coming out all week this week,
even from North Carolina. I may be traveling again in
the next couple of days or the Ring magazine. Keep
(19:48):
your eyes on that. We're coming back tomorrow. I think
with some many Pakiao talk because I can't believe it's
coming out of retirement and fighting it for a world
championship belt. More thoughts on that tomorrow, But you guys,
let me know what you think. Down, how did you
think UFC three point fifteen went, and how are you
feeling about your new champion at one hundred and seventy pounds,
Jack Della Maddelene promises to bring damage and I believe in.
(20:10):
But credit to below, Mohmand fought a good fight as well.
I don't think the boring accusations can go on with
the way he fought. But a hell of a fight,
you guys. Let me know what you think down below,
because for what happens next at one seventy at one
fifty five with the UFC, I don't have those answers,
but I guess we'll find out
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