Daniel Cormier questions Jack Della Maddalena vs Islam Makhachev odds, and explains why

In a significant upset, Della Maddalena defeated Belal Muhammad this past May. This marked Muhammad’s first title defence, with JDM delivering a strong five-round performance.

Even after that result, Della Maddalena is still being listed as the underdog ahead of his fight against the former lightweight champion, and Cormier is surprised it is not being viewed as a closer match-up.

“If you’ve seen videos and pictures of Islam lately, he’s bigger, he’s much bigger. And he’s gonna have to be bigger if he wants to get through the monster that is Jack Della Maddalena.

“They (Makhachev’s team) know the challenge ahead…those guys are well aware of how good Jack Della Maddalena is. He’s so tough, he’s so big, he’s so physical, and now he’s got takedown defence to match.

“After watching him fight Belal Muhammad, after watching how wonderfully he put together a game plan, it’s a much more even fight than you would have thought prior.

“I really think it’s interesting to find out what the world, or the oddsmakers, think of Islam vs Jack. Wow…Islam’s -265, Jack +225. That’s a little bigger than I would have expected.

“I believe people will probably come in on Jack…’cause at the end of the day, Islam is still the smaller guy going up to the next weight class to fight against a world champion who never looked better than in his last fight.”

Jack Della Maddalena’s team predicting KO win over Islam Makhachev

Cormier’s perspective is likely shared by the reigning welterweight champion and his team.

Coach Ben Vickers has even gone so far as to predict a knockout win for Della Maddalena at UFC 322, which would be just the second loss of Makhachev’s career and only his second time being stopped.

“I just don’t think Islam has the chin that Belal has,” Vickers told Submission Radio.

“We know for a fact that if Jack clips someone on the chin, they can go over. So, it could happen in the first minute, it could happen in the 24th minute.

“Jack likes long fights, he likes to be in there, but obviously, we’re not getting paid for overtime,” Vickers added.