After Islam Makhachev was crowned the new 170-pound champion, Ilia Topuria almost immediately took to X and mocked him. The current lightweight champion called Makhachev “the most boring thing in this game” while also threatening to “sleep” him if they ever met inside the Octagon. And honestly, Topuria isn’t alone, as many fans have voiced their disappointment that Makhachev vs. Della Maddalena wasn’t the barn burner it was promised to be. So what’s the reason? Any tactical or strategic angle? No. According to UFC legend Michael Bisping, the blame should go to the co-main event. 

In a historic Madison Square Garden clash, Islam Makhachev put on a highly dominant performance against Jack Della Maddalena to fulfill his dream of becoming a two-division champ. In the full 25-minute fight, Makhachev controlled his opponent for 19 minutes and 10 seconds, landing all four of his takedowns in the process, with almost twenty minutes of control time. But even with the Dagestani achieving glory, many didn’t find his approach particularly exciting, especially after four back-to-back KOs cleared the road to the title fights of the night.

Michael Bisping holds the UFC 322 co-main event responsible for Islam Makhachev vs. JDM turning boring

‘The Count’ said on his YouTube video, “Listen, you gotta admire what you saw from Islam. But I think that ‘boredom’ was accentuated by what happened in the co-main event. Because we had a very similar performance. Valentina Shevchenko dominated Zhang Weili. She was the bigger lady. She took her down, she used her wrestling, and she controlled her over 5 rounds.”  

People have been calling the main event boring mainly because of how ‘JDM’ stayed too cautious on the ground while dealing with Islam Makhachev’s crafty submission attempts, and avoided wrestling up to his feet since that could have exposed his back. This prompted the Dagestani to stay on top of the Aussie while searching for chokes that never materialized, and Makhachev ended up gaining control time instead of a finish.

And while that might explain why the Aussie didn’t push harder or why the Dagestani couldn’t secure his fourth straight finish, it’s still a bit hard to understand how Valentina Shevchenko putting on a dominant performance against Zhang Weili affected Makhachev’s game plan. Also, Bisping didn’t really explain why he thinks that.

Shevchenko vs. Weili saw a combined total of 347 strikes thrown between them, with 186 of those coming from the defending champion. In comparison, JDM vs Makhachev saw 262 total strikes thrown, with Islam attempting 188, more than twice what the champion did. The Dagestani also had 19:10 minutes of control time, as opposed to Valentina’s 13:24 minutes. The numbers paint a different picture from the public opinion. The co-main event was far more eventful than the main event. So, what is Bisping on about?

Going further in his video, ‘The Count’ actually pointed out a pretty solid reason why the audience might have found both the main and co-main event a little unexciting. And no, it had nothing to do with a particular fight, but rather the first half of the event itself.

Bisping believes UFC 322’s first-half hype killed the excitement for the headliners 

After Bo Nickal’s exhilarating head-kick finish over Rodolfo Vieira became the UFC 322 prelims’ showstopper, the main card also started with a bang! Benoit Saint-Denis scored a quick 16-second finish over Beneil Dariush, followed by Carlos Prates and Michael Morales completely flatlining Leon Edwards and Sean Brady, respectively. So, as the path toward reaching the superfight stayed highly exciting, Bisping also pointed out that this could be another reason why people found the headliners boring.

The former middleweight champ added in his YouTube video, saying, “So when you blend all of that, adrenaline’s building, the night’s going ‘oh my God, this is going to be the best PPV of all time.’ Then you get to the big fights, the title fights, the co-main event, and the main event, and it’s 50 minutes of essentially grappling. So yeah, I think that’s why a lot of people are saying that.”

This time, Bisping actually has a pretty good argument! Remember UFC 268? Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler opened the Madison Square Garden card with a full 15 minutes of violence. After that, no matter what fight came next or how good it was, nothing lived up to the show those two lightweights delivered. So, considering how the UFC 322 headliners turned into more wrestling-based matchups, the three back-to-back finishes might also be a factor.

That said, as Islam Makhachev and Jack Della Maddalena face boring allegations, did you actually find the fight boring, or was it technical brilliance for you? Let us know in the comments section below.