Makhachev dominates Della Maddalena to win UFC welterweight belt

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Makhachev makes airy of stepping up a value people to bushed Della Maddalena by unanimous decision.

Published On 16 Nov 2025

Islam Makhachev out-classed Jack Della Maddalena successful a five-round beat-down to assertion a unanimous determination triumph and triumph the UFC welterweight title astatine Madison Square Garden, with Valentina Shevchenko retaining her flyweight rubric successful the co-main event.

Makhachev made airy of stepping up a value class aft relinquishing the lightweight crown to pursuit a caller challenge, utterly dominating his Australian hostile for 25 minutes with his smothering grappling to assertion his 16th UFC triumph successful a enactment connected Saturday night.

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The 34-year-old softened up his 29-year-old adversary with calf kicks earlier launching a relentless wrestling onslaught and Della Maddalena had nary answer, getting stuck connected the mat dealing with submission threats nether tremendous unit for agelong periods.

“This is my plan. It’s not a secret, each my opponents cognize this, and cipher tin halt it,” Makhachev said earlier calling for his archetypal rubric defence to beryllium astatine the proposed event connected the White House tract successful 2026.

All 3 judges scored the contention 50-45 arsenic Makhachev became the 11th combatant successful UFC past to clasp titles successful 2 antithetic value classes.

Della Maddalena – who ended an 18-fight vocation triumph streak, that featured 14 finishes – walked retired of the cage without conducting the accepted post-fight interrogation and mislaid his archetypal rubric defence since helium bushed Belal Muhammad via unanimous determination successful May to wrest distant the welterweight championship.

In the co-headliner, Zhang Weili’s imagination of joining the elite radical of double-champions came up abbreviated arsenic the wily Shevchenko out-pointed her successful different ascendant show to clasp the flyweight crown.

Shevchenko (26-4-1) won her 11th wide rubric combat erstwhile she swept the scorecards 50-45 against Zhang.

Shevchenko displayed her afloat array of skills, sniping astatine her Chinese hostile and hurting her with punishing kicks to the body, and taking her to the mat and controlling her whenever she felt successful danger.

The combatant from Krygyzstan became the archetypal pistillate UFC combatant to grounds 60 vocation takedowns – and the combat so ended with Zhang connected her back.

“I was preparing for this combat arsenic the hardest situation successful my life,” Shevchenko said successful the cage aft her customary triumph dance.

“This is what I telephone the creation of martial arts. When they are present successful beforehand of me, they cannot bash anything.”

Valentina Shevchenko and Zhang Weili successful action.

The amusement went connected without an quality from President Donald Trump, a adjacent person of UFC CEO Dana White, who usually has a cage broadside spot for the tri-state area’s biggest events.

UFC fans astatine the Garden, though, did get a large combat good up of the main lawsuit erstwhile a monolithic brawl broke retired adjacent 1 of the tunnels utilized for combat entrances and spilled done the stands and adjacent property row.

The disturbance – which progressive MMA combatant Dillon Danis – had the assemblage howling and caused a abbreviated hold to the commencement of the pay-per-view paper arsenic constabulary and information tried to bust up the melee.

Fists continued to alert astatine a furious gait erstwhile UFC 322 genuinely got nether way.

Beneil Dariush (in 16 seconds of the archetypal round), Carlos Prates (at 1:28 of the 2nd round), and Michael Morales (at 3:27 of the archetypal round) each won with devastating knockouts to unfastened the card.

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