Former UFC welterweight champion boldly claims Jack Della Maddalena wouldn’t have been a top 10 fighter in his era

Tyron Woodley says Jack Della Maddalena would’ve struggled against the welterweights of his era

While there may be several fighters that rank higher than him in the greatest welterweight of all time discussions, Tyron Woodley still had a great career.

‘The Chosen One’ was able to record four defenses of the 170-pound title, with one of them being a draw, before losing the belt in 2019.

Georges St-Pierre may have stepped away from the Octagon in 2013 but the division was still full of some big names that were all vying for the former champion’s spot.

With that in mind, Woodley recently shared his thoughts on what a fight between him and Jack Della Maddalena would have been like if they had met during their careers when speaking to Action Network.

‘The Chosen One’ responded by stating that in his opinion, Della Maddalena wouldn’t have ever been in a position to challenge him for the title during his era because of the level of competition he would’ve faced.

“He [Jack Della Maddalena] wouldn’t even have been in my crosshairs. I wouldn’t have been looking at him in the scope. He wouldn’t have gone through Carlos [Condit]. He definitely wouldn’t have gotten through Robbie [Lawler]. ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson] does better against pure strikers than all of us. His timing and his abilities, just to get in-out real quick, he would have beat him.

“I think he’s a good fighter. I never take away from people, it’s hard to win a championship, just because there’s so much pressure. But I can just think of ten people in my division at that time that was the champion that would have beat him.”

Tyron Woodley predicts that Islam Makhachev will defeat Jack Della Maddalena but wouldn’t have beaten him

Considering where he would rank Jack Della Maddalena against the fighters of his era, it’s not surprising that Tyron Woodley is backing Islam Makhachev to beat him for the welterweight title.

The former champion believes, that unlike ‘JDM’, Makhachev would have fared well in the division while he was still champion because of his wrestling ability.

However, he thinks that certain fighters that were around at that time, including himself, would’ve caused the Russian some issues because of their ability to keep the fight standing and knock opponents out.

“If you put Islam Makhachev against Johny Hendricks, he gets knocked out. You put him against me, I think he gets beat, and potentially knocked out. Islam might do okay against GSP [Georges St-Pierre], because of the wrestling, but just stylistically, the heavy-handed wrestlers that were in that era, he would have a problem with.”