“That’s why I prepared so hard – to make this easy.
Loading
“I tried to do some chokes, but he defends it very well. But I made this easy because I trained so hard.”
With Makhachev strongly indicating his preference to stay at welterweight in a bid to dominate the division, Della Maddalena will have to significantly boost his grappling-escape techniques if he is to be any chance of winning a re-match down the track.
Makhachev (28-1) was barely hit throughout the fight and needed just 70 seconds to earn his first takedown.
It meant Della Maddalena (18-3) had to scrap for survival for almost four minutes until the round-one bell saved him, with the 29-year-old handed a foul for a late kick.
Della Maddalena made a mistake early in the second when his attempt to throw Makhachev resulted in another takedown, forcing another long, exhausting scrap for survival.
Makhachev’s calf kicks early each round started to take a toll on Della Maddalena in the third, with the Russian continuing to control matters in the same manner for the rest of the contest.
Della Maddalena did well each time to avoid a submission.
But with his right leg in tatters and having no answers to Makhachev’s grappling, the West Australian was barely able to fire a shot.
In the co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko stamped herself as one of the greatest women UFC fighters of all time when she defended her flyweight title against strawweight star Zhang Weili.
Loading
Zhang vacated her strawweight belt to come up to meet Shevchenko, but the size difference between the two was noticeable throughout.
Shevchenko (26-4-1) took down Weili (26-4) in each round, dominating from start to finish to earn the unanimous decision.
Ecuadorian Michael Morales (19-0) took another step towards a welterweight title fight after defeating No.2 challenger Sean Brady with a first-round knockout.
Carlos Prates (23-7) also put himself in the welterweight title conversation by knocking out former champion Leon Edwards (22-6) in the second round.
The first fight of the main card lasted just 16 seconds, with Benoit Saint-Denis felling Beneil Dariush in what was the sixth fastest knockout in UFC lightweight history.
Meanwhile, American MMA fighter Dillon Danis, who is not part of the UFC, has been banned from UFC events for life after engaging in an all-in crowd brawl against Makhachev’s support team.
AAP
