📝 The Biggest Challenge For MMA's Best Grappler

The sport’s best grappler, Islam Makhachev, has moved up to welterweight to challenge for a second title. He takes on his polar opposite, an unorthodox Australian who uses weird jiujitsu from an even weirder coach to compliment an oddly crisp striking style. It’s a fun fight full of unknowns and today we’re going to talk about what could happen.

Now let’s get into it.

67% finishing rate. Former lightweight champion. P4P #1 fighter in MMA. What’s left to say about Islam Makhachev?

He’s the best all around grappler in MMA. I think he has the best top half game.

We have a good idea of what JDM is going to do to counter Islam’s half guard. Knee levers, put his feet on Islam’s hips, and kick him away.

What I’m more interested in is how Islam is going to get it there and how JDM is going to try to stop it.

Islam’s takedowns are so potent because he blends the borders of judo and wrestling better than almost anyone else. He uses everything from single legs to sasaes and a whole lot more that. Take a look at the very first takedown he hit in the UFC.

Islam is a master of sneaking in small strikes to get his opponents to hit back and set up his throws.

Islam will often start his grappling onslaught with a simple single leg.

If Islam doesn’t finish the takedown in open space, he’ll push his opponent to the fence so he can climb up their body to finish with a tri throw.

What’s most troubling for Islam’s opponents is that his throws come as both direct offense and sneaky counters.

You do not want to be locked in a clinch with Islam. Getting stuck there is effectively resigning to being taken down. For what it’s worth, JDM has recently showed interesting hand fighting techniques to fight back against his opponent’s over hooks.

From here JDM showed the creativity we’ve come to expect from him to get to safety.

Clearly JDM can fight out of the clinch against savvy grapplers. But what happens if he gets taken down?

If you watch MMA long enough you’ll hear a specific trope about fighters becoming “too technical”. A fighter that commits to training and training and training until everything looks like the textbook.

Crisp technical mechanics are usually seen as benefits. Who wouldn’t want to look picture perfect? How could sticking to “best practices” be a bad thing?

If it forces you to focus on how you look instead fighting in the moment.

Being too technical can translate to being too mechanical and repetitive. People that are too technical are unable to go off script because they only memorized the script. They don’t understand the emotions the words convey.

Fighters that are too technical forget to fight. They miss unplanned openings because they’re only looking for the perfect read.

Too technical is not how anyone would describe Jack Della Maddalena (JDM).

JDM is a blitzing finisher who perfectly balances crisp technique and unorthodox opportunism. If you give him an inch he’ll find the creative route you cannot see and go the extra mile.

JDM is always on the hunt to hurt people with his hands. Because of his offense first style he does find himself in bad spots on the ground. He addresses this by never settling to stay on the bottom.

In this particular fight JDM was using clever jiujitsu to make space and keep fighting.

These past three sequences were from JDM’s two most recent fights but they’re not new tactics. In JDM’s closest win in the UFC he was regularly fighting off of bottom to get back to his best spots.

Even in his earliest UFC fight JDM was using unorthodox grappling to escape fight ending positions.

We have evidence of the Australian champion creatively escaping the clinch and getting off bottom. I’m left wondering if that creativity will come back to bite him in the ass.

Islam has the best top half in MMA but no one is impossible to move. Multiple fighters have show exactly how to do just that.

In one of the best grappling fights of all time, Arman Tsarukyan used butterfly hooks to facilitate his wrestling up on Islam.

Before Charles Oliveira lost the title to Islam, Charles showed how to get up against him.

Butterfly hooks, making space, and wrestling up. This is exactly what JDM has show he can do. And he has the creativity to catch Islam by surprise.

Where there is creative decision making there are often choices that look downright silly in retrospect. JDM is no exception to this.

JDM went back to an ill advised guillotine choke over and over again in his fight with Bassil Hafez. That left him on the bottom for far too long. It nearly cost him the fight.

I don’t think JDM will make that mistake against Islam. But you have to be concerned about what his stand-ups open him up for.

Letting Islam get over your head for a cradle or front head lock is nearly as effective as suicide in a fight against Islam. Just look at how his last two fights ended.

The short d’arce has become somewhat of Islam’s signature finishing technique.

Here is where things get tricky.

JDM can shake Islam off the top much like he’s done to many others. And Islam has never fought at welterweight in the UFC. But what JDM does after that might play right into one of Islam’s best finishing positions!

Can JDM stay cool under fire? Will the space he makes be his undoing?

It’s not like Islam has a straightforward path to winning the welterweight title. He’s going to have to walk a tight rope straight over a wildfire. JDM has some of the most violent boxing in the sport and Islam’s only loss was a knockout loss early in his career. He was even dropped by Alexander Volkanovski when the featherweight came up to lightweight. Islam’s is hurtable.

I guess we’ll have to end with a question. What’s more likely? JDM forcing Islam to make enough mistakes over 25 minutes to really hurt the former lightweight champion; or, JDM’s high risk, high reward grappling becoming his demise.

Islam Makhachev is the best grappler fighting today. Takedowns, passes, and submissions. I struggle to think of an element of grappling that he isn’t great at.

Sweeps? Maybe. We can’t say for certain. He’s never on bottom long enough to need them!

What makes Islam special is the variety of trips and throws he uses to finish his takedowns, how patiently he passes the guard before starting to punch, and the top half attacks he uses. And I have all of this broken down in the latest article on my Help Desk.