"I just want to tell everybody I can fight with anybody in the striking, grappling, wrestling because I'm not just grappler. I can strike. I strike with Dustin (Poirier), with (Alexander) Volk. He can defend my wrestling, but I will strike and I will try to take him down again,"
"I don't think I'm like small for the welterweight. I did my program very well, gained weight, and I'm ready."
"This is big things. I'm going to be #10 who are like two-division champion. It's a big things for me,"
Islam Makhachev moves up to welterweight to face Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 in Madison Square Garden. He reports matching Maddalena in size after a deliberate weight-gain program and completed a three-month camp he calls the hardest of his life. Makhachev emphasizes a complete MMA skill set—striking, grappling, and wrestling—and points to prior striking exchanges with Dustin Poirier and Alexander Volkanovski. He plans to mix striking with takedown attempts rather than rely solely on wrestling. A victory would make him the tenth two-division UFC champion.
Read at Cageside Press
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