Jack Della Maddalena took away Belal Muhammad’s potent wrestling means, permitting just one takedown en path to turning into the brand new welterweight champion in the primary occasion of Final Preventing Championship (UFC) 315 in Montreal, Canada.
He gained the five-rounder by scores of 48-47, 48-47, 49-45 on Saturday night time.
Della Maddalena used quantity placing to frustrate the now-former welterweight champion, practically ending the combat on a number of events. Della Maddalena (18-2, Combined Martial Arts) has now gained 18 in a row. Muhammad (24-4, 1 No Contest) was making his first title defence and had gained 11 consecutive fights.
Della Maddalena credited Muhammad’s toughness however mentioned post-fight that he knew he was not going to let it slip away.
“It felt [expletive] good,” the Australian mentioned with a smile.
He mentioned he was intrigued by UFC light-weight champion Islam Makhachev’s attainable transfer to welterweight, and was open to exacting revenge on the Russian. His fellow Australian, Alexander Volkanovski, misplaced each bouts to Makhachev.
It’s the first loss for Muhammad, a Chicago native, since January 2019.
Valentina Shevchenko efficiently defended her UFC ladies’s flyweight title within the co-main occasion over Manon Fiorot, successful by a unanimous 48-47, 48-47, 48-47 resolution handy Fiorot (12-2, MMA) her first UFC loss.
Regardless of a intently contested combat, Shevchenko (25-4, 1 NC MMA) pushed the tempo within the fourth and fifth rounds to tire out Fiorot and provides the Frenchwoman little room to work after indicators of early success by way of three gruelling rounds.
“I anticipated a tough combat,” Shevchenko, a 125-pounder from Kyrgyzstan, mentioned within the Octagon following the win.
The victory marked Shevchenko’s 14th within the UFC, together with 10 title fights.
Initially scheduled as a bantamweight combat, Canadian featherweight Aiemann Zahabi earned a win by unanimous resolution in opposition to former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, taking the three scorecards by matching 29-28 scores.
Aldo practically completed Zahabi within the third spherical with a head kick, adopted by a flurry of strikes. Nonetheless, Zahabi was capable of survive Aldo’s assaults, acquire the highest place, and open a minimize on Aldo.
The win for Zahabi (13-2, MMA) marked Brazilian Aldo’s (32-10) remaining MMA combat, saying his retirement within the Octagon.
“I simply don’t have it in my coronary heart any extra,” mentioned Aldo, 38. “I believe that is the final time you’re going to see me.”
Girls’s flyweight Natalia Silva of Brazil knocked off former champion Alexa Grasso from her top-contender standing with a unanimous resolution win, all by 30-27 scores.
Silva (19-5-1, MMA) has gained her first six UFC fights, whereas Mexico’s Grasso (16-5-1, MMA) has to return to the drafting board to stay in competition. Silva opened a noticeable minimize above Grasso’s eyelid, swinging the momentum within the second spherical earlier than a one-sided Spherical 3 adopted go well with with dominant kickboxing means.
Light-weight Benoit Saint-Denis of France had no bother beating Canadian Kyle Prepolec, a late substitute, with an arm triangle choke at 2:35 of the second spherical.
It was Saint-Denis’s (14-3) first win since November 2023, snapping a two-fight shedding skid. Prepolec (18-9) stepped in for Joel Alvarez (22-3) and made his first Octagon look since 2019.