Jack Della Maddalena disagrees with Leon Edwards’ claim that the unusual fight time at UFC 304 affected his performance against Belal Muhammad last July.
Edwards, who lost his welterweight title to Muhammad that night, attributed his fatigue and sluggishness to the late-night start time, which was scheduled to accommodate U.S. pay-per-view audiences. However, Della Maddalena believes that excuse takes credit away from Muhammad’s victory.
“In my opinion, I feel like Leon has always fought like that, so just to blame the timing, I don’t think, is fair on Belal’s part,” Della Maddalena told The Mac Life. “I think Leon has shown that he’s happy sort of not doing too much, using his precise striking just to sit back, and I think Belal pulled off the perfect game plan — just to push the pace, grab a hold of him, make it a bit more ugly.”
Della Maddalena is set to face Edwards on March 22 in the UFC Fight Night London main event at The O2. As he prepares for the matchup, he plans to employ a similarly aggressive strategy to what Muhammad used.
“That would be my plan: Put him up against the cage, build upon a pace, keep pushing the pace, and try to make it ugly,” Della Maddalena said. “I think it’s a good game plan for me, and I’m going to go in there and use the blueprint to try and do what Belal did. I’m not going to try and grab ahold of Leon. I’m just going to be trying to get in the pocket, land big shots, and try to beat him down.”
