Islam Makhachev mauled Jack Della Maddalena at the UFC 322 fight night. Interestingly, his prowess isn’t all that the Russian proved. Makhachev has trained in Sambo, a martial art style that the Australian fighter Craig Jones, who prefers Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, considers fake. Ironically, Sambo won over Jones’ BJJ coaching. But Makhachev wanted it written in stone, or on social media.

“Jokes aside, Craigjones needs to be fired. We have to make Australia great again!,” Makhachev posted on his X. He also added a poll to the tweet, with the options “Fire?” and “Send 2-3 years Dagestan?”

What was more interesting than the post-bout jabs was the fact that at least 111,159 people out of Dagestani’s 800K+ X followers voted for their choice. Only 11.2% wanted Jones fired, while a whopping 88.8% wanted him to go to Dagestan and train.

Apparently, Jones had joined the training camp of the then-welterweight defending champion Maddalena to nullify the Dagestani wrestling style that Makhachev commands. Comically, the latter humiliated the striking powerhouse with a series of unrelentless takedowns.

He did the same to Jones on X. His followers followed suit.

They went into an online war against the BJJ fighter. ‘Send to Dagestan‘ memes flooded the replies, and fans began throwing verbal jabs at the Australian fighter.

The fight was a true show of the command wrestling has in MMA, with Makhachev finishing 4 takedowns against JDM. His strategy was simple: duck well under the striker’s punches, close the range with a tight body lock, and corner his opponent against the cage. Shutting down JDM’s movement, Makhachev succeeded in finishing all four of his takedowns, surpassing even Khabib Nurmagomedov when it comes to the wrestling saga.

Following this dominant win, Makhachev sent a message to Jones through the media, suggesting to train in Dagestan. But, it appears, his virtual fight with Craig Jones began even before UFC 322.

“Let’s make this Craig [do] one fight, MMA fight.” He told Daniel Cormier. “When you bring someone for one camp or for two camps? I give you a good example. What about Khamzat [Chimaev] fighting with Dricus [du Plessis]? Du Plessis brought many coaches, many partners, but it didn’t help. It’s not working like this.”

Surely, a couple of camps cannot improve your takedown defenses or your mount escapes. Craig Jones cannot turn JDM into a master leg-locker in a matter of days, either, especially not against a wrestling-heavy top game that Islam Makhachev commands.

It is not uncommon for fighters to take jabs at their opponents’ team. In fact, ahead of his lightweight title bout against Dricus du Plessis, he didn’t stay behind to build anticipation for the competition. Then, Makhachev called du Plessis’ team unfit to train him. However, continuing the fire after a big win is something new. However, he also needs to prove his doubters wrong, too.

But this wasn’t a one-sided war like the UFC 322 main event was. Here, Jones was not backing down either.

Craig Jones takes digs at the UFC 322 title winner

Craig Jones isn’t new to humor that can drag even the best wrestlers down. And his reaction to Islam Makhachev’s disapproval of him in JDM’s training camp is worth a read. No, he didn’t defend his position or Maddalena’s for the fact. Instead, he noted the look in Makhachev’s eyes when Jones was brought up in the pre-fight presser.

“That look, I’ve only seen in the exes that really loved me,” he said. “Send him 2-3 years Australia and forget.” Spitting back Dagestani’s comments at him, Jones added a little Australian kick to the meme. Whether this is just to spite the MMA fighter or to hint at the jiu-jitsu caveats in his wrestling game is debatable.

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But this isn’t news that Jones doesn’t quite approve of Sambo. While Makhachev has had Sambo roots that have brought him great success, Jones believes it is just a hastily put Frankenstein of jiu-jitsu, judo, and wrestling, fit for MMA, but with multiple gaps in the game.

“Khabib (Nurmagomedov) started this beef, and in terms of pure grappling matches, there’s not a good sambo guy on earth,” Jones said. “Obviously, the skill set they have translates quite well to MMA, but in terms of pure grappling, there are some holes in the game. They banned rotational leg locks, so it is a limited grappling skill set.”

While Khabib Nurmagomedov suggests jiu-jitsu is just an easy version of Sambo, the martial art’s ties with BJJ are crystal clear for any practitioner to point out. Incorporating pinning positions like mount and side control, and submissions like armbars, are just some moves Sambo picked up from BJJ. Unfortunately, lessons from the jiu-jitsu king himself couldn’t stand against Makhachev’s flawless wrestling. Who do you think will have their hands raised if Jones and Makhachev fight?