Belal Muhammad, the current welterweight champion of the UFC, will face Jack Della Maddalena for his first title defense fight ever since he won the title in July of 2024. Muhammad previously beat Leon Edwards at UFC 304, via unanimous decision, to be crowned the welterweight champion for the first time in his UFC career. While we expect the fight to be close between Maddalena and Muhammad, the champ however is confident that he will retain his welterweight title back. Muhammad is an extremely skilled grappler, who has lost just 3 fights in his MMA career so far and his record stands at 24-3-0.
Also Read: UFC 315 Countdown – Will Manon Fiorot Be The One To Dethrone Valentina Shevchenko?
Islam Makhachev, the current lightweight champion of the UFC, has repeatedly declined to fight former featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria, and has asked Topuria and his team to first fight lightweight contenders first, before he can challenge the lightweight champ for a title shot. Many question the lightweight champ about if he’s dodging Topuria, but lately it has seemed like the champ has something else on his mind. The Russian has a lot of desire in becoming a two division champ in the UFC which includes conquering the Lightweight belt (which he already has), and also the welterweight belt.
The only problem with Makhachev’s dream is that, his good friend, Belal Muhammad, is sitting at the top of the welterweight division currently, and both the fighters have shown zero interest in fighting each other. However, now that Belal is set to take on Maddalena at UFC 315, Makhachev is currently waiting on the fight’s result to make his decision on if he should book a fight in the lightweight division, or wait for Maddalena to potentially upset Muhammad, by which Makhachev will have the greenlight to purse the welterweight belt.
While Makhachev is waiting for the fight result, Muhammad feels extremely confident that he can retain his welterweight title at UFC 315. Muhammad said, “Get your fight signed. Because I’m not leaving Montreal without the belt.”
Muhammad is the current favorite to win the fight against Jack Della Maddalena, and we expect the fight to be a lengthy contest, with Muhammad using his grappling skills and takedowns to slow Maddalena’s elite striking skills down. However, with Muhammad recently claiming that he’s not even going to attempt one takedown, with the desire to knockout Maddalena, we cannot really say how the fight is going to go at UFC 315. Will Muhammad retain his title or will we see a new champion be crowned? We’ll find out soon enough.
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