It’s been only three years since Jack Della Maddalena stepped into the UFC, and he’s already regarded as one of the best Aussie fighters the promotion has ever seen. In this short tenure, ‘JDM’ has impressed everyone with his slick fighting style and his grit to never back down from a challenge. The Perth native’s latest highlight was his championship victory over Belal Muhammad at UFC 315. But sometimes, the pinnacle of your career is not necessarily the best moment of your career.

On November 15th, Della Maddalena will head to Madison Square Garden to defend his newly won welterweight belt against legendary lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. With such a massive fight ahead, the 29-year-old will look to create another highlight-reel moment. But before that anticipated super clash happens, everyone has been talking about JDM’s career highlights, and Israel Adesanya has picked his favorite. 

Israel Adesanya reveals his favorite Jack Della Maddalena highlight 

On the FREESTYLBENDER YouTube channel, the former two-time middleweight champ sat down with Jack Della Maddalena and said, “Another one I don’t think I was there live for was the Gilbert Burns (fight) because of the scrambles you used. I watched something afterwards where you said you were on the ground, maybe you heard from your coach or whatever, you were down. Then you decided, ‘Okay, this is it, I’m gonna get up now.’”

He straight-up labeled the welterweight champ’s fight against Gilbert Burns at UFC 299 as “GOAT.” Well, ‘The Last Stylebender’ isn’t wrong to pick JDM’s performance against Gilbert Burns as one of the best highlights of his career. In that fight, the Brazilian took the Aussie down seven times, but each time, Della Maddalena got up using his amazing sprawls and landed vicious elbows and knees.

Still, he was down in the first two rounds and needed a finish in the third. And with only 77 seconds left on the clock, ‘JDM’ got up again after a beautiful sprawl and landed a big knee that set up the finish. This sequence shot the Aussie into popularity, which made Israel Adesanya a fan as well.

Adesanya added on the FREESTYLEBEDER podcast, “And then used the butterfly again, and boom, got up, reversed him. And then he came for a takedown, and then you just went knee. I think that sequence is goated in your history. There’s more to come, but that sequence — getting off the bottom, reshoots, flying knee to finish the fight while you were down — bruh, f—in beautiful.”

And that was, in every sense of the word, beautiful! In the fight against Gilbert Burns, Jack Della Maddalena showed how landing multiple takedowns without controlling him on the ground could backfire, because the reigning champ just kept getting up and going straight on offense. He did something similar in his fight against Belal Muhammad, too. For that exact reason, some fans are picking him to beat Islam Makhachev as well. But there’s another reason why JDM’s fight against ‘Durinho’ gets even more epic. 

The Aussie fought Gilbert Burns with a broken hand  

If Jack Della Maddalena’s performance against Gilbert Burns wasn’t already impressive, the fact that he fought with a broken hand makes it even more insane. As per the reigning 170 lbs kingpin’s manager, Tim Simpson, ‘JDM’ broke his left hand in the first round. After the knockout victory, Simpson even shared the X-ray report to prove that Della Maddalena actually fractured his hand during the fight. But the question is: How did he manage to win with such a painful injury?

In the FREESTYLBENDER interview, JDM revealed, “I don’t know when, I don’t know when. Even looking back, it’s hard to pick when it was broken.” His manager then brought the memory back and said, “I think it was the first minute of the first round.” The Aussie champ added that he actually couldn’t feel the pain, “I couldn’t feel it tho, I wish I could feel it.” Probably because of the adrenaline rush of the fight — something Adesanya couldn’t help but admire as he said, “How could you not love this guy?”

Yes! Jack Della Maddalena might be soft-spoken, but inside the cage, he’s a warrior. That’s why UFC legends like Israel Adesanya absolutely love this guy. It’s that warrior spirit that makes JDM great — just like his countryman and current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. Heading into UFC 322, he believes he can take on Islam Makhachev and his grappling head-on. And we’ll see whether he can create another viral highlight or not.

That said, do you think Jack Della Maddalena could actually pull off the victory at Madison Square Garden despite being the underdog? Let us know in the comments section below.