Robert Whittaker explains why he is confident in Jack Della Maddalena ahead of UFC title fight against Belal Muhammad: "I like that fight for 'JDM'"
Robert Whittaker recently explained why he is confident in Jack Della Maddalena ahead of his welterweight title fight against Belal Muhammad at UFC 314. He noted that the Perth native is an excellent matchup for 'Remember the Name'.
'JDM' was originally preparing for a bout against Leon Edwards. However, he was awarded a title shot instead because Shavkat Rakhmonov was unable to accept the bout with Muhammad due to an injury. Della Maddalena comes into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak that dates back to 2016, while Muhammad is on an 11-fight unbeaten streak that includes his 2021 no-contest with Edwards.
During his latest appearance on Submission Radio, Whittaker shared his thoughts on the match-up. The former middleweight champion mentioned that Della Maddalena's striking and ability to remain aggressive even after being taken down pose a threat to Muhammad:
"Dude, I like that fight for 'JDM'. 'JDM' is one of those guys that doesn't go away and he's always looking to close that space and to just drag the fight out and just beat you up. He's got super effective boxing and striking and obviously with his fight against [Gilbert] Burns, we saw that he can get taken down, he can get back up. And his effectiveness doesn't really diminish, so I like that fight for him."
Check out Robert Whittaker's comments below (12:00):
Robert Whittaker weighs in on Belal Muhammad possibly moving up to middleweight
Robert Whittaker also shared his take on Belal Muhammad possibly moving up to middleweight and noted that he doesn't believe he would have success.
During the aforementioned conversation, Whittaker mentioned that Muhammad would have a physical disadvantage and wouldn't be able to impose his will on his opponents at 185 pounds. He said:
"A strong point for [Muhammad] in his division right now is his size and his strength. The size increases as you move up, they're big guys in the [middleweight] division. And I do feel like a lot of the top fellas in our game... the skill set's quite diversified. I don't think he'd have as much success, but who knows, maybe he will." [11:21 in the aforementioned video]
Check out Belal Muhammad's comments regarding middleweight which Robert Whittaker reacted to below: