Islam Makhachev cemented his place among the sport’s all-time greats on Saturday night, becoming a two-division UFC champion with a dominant welterweight title victory over Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 inside Madison Square Garden.
In a building where legends are made, Makhachev delivered the kind of performance that echoes, methodical, suffocating, and undeniably elite, silencing doubts about his move up in weight and further solidifying his grip on the pound-for-pound throne.
“I feel so happy. It’s the biggest day in my life. So happy to be double UFC champion in Madison Square Garden,” Makhachev told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.
“What I told all fight week…It’s my dream today.”
Makhachev (28-1) controlled the fight from start to finish, taking Della Maddalena down at will and shutting down every offensive attempt that came his way. From the moment he secured the first takedown, Makhachev seemed to know the night belonged to him.
“When I take him down first time I feel it’s going to be long night, and I can do whatever I want in the ground. I expect for him like he gonna try to get up, but we (worked on this). We watched his old fights, he have a couple like sweep couple things in the ground, but I blocked him there. That’s why I made this easy,” he said.
Craig Jones, Della Maddalena’s jiu-jitsu coach, was in his corner at UFC 322, and Makhachev couldn’t resist cracking a joke with the famed black belt afterward.
“I told him your Jiu-Jitsu not working. You have to come to Dagestan for 2, 3 years. He start laughing. He told Khabib, I will come Dagestan,” Makhachev said laughing.
“Everybody want something. This is the (most) competitive division right now, welterweight. Lot of young guys who fought today. Kamaru (Usman), (Ilia) Topuria, you know. All killers want to take my belt,” he said.
“No, no, no. I don’t give it, no.”
The word “easy” has been floating around MMA circles in the hours since the fight, but Makhachev wasn’t ready to label it that way. He wasn’t sure where the performance ranked in his career, though he made it clear the training camp was one of the toughest he’s endured.
“Good question. This is the hardest camp, but fight, maybe. I beat Volk, and the last fight I choke (him). Today’s easy also, but I (didn’t) finish him,” he told Cageside Press.
Makhachev spoke openly about the bond he shares with his teammates, emphasizing that their success is built on loyalty rather than individual achievement. He said the real strength of their camp comes from showing up for one another, whether they have a fight booked or not.
“This is what I have to do to make them happy. We support and help each other. Not for the money, for the somethings, just…I win they happy. Same things when someone fight from our camp, our team, I go to help them. I don’t have fight, I just go to the camp, help them,” he told Cageside Press.
“We go to Dubai to support, to help, Usman (Nurmagomedov). We go all team. We (push) each other to become better. Not because of money. Because we’re all brothers.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Islam Makhachev above.
