Fast facts
- Division: Welterweight
- Record: 18-4
- Nationality: Australian
- Team/gym: Scrappy MMA
- Notable wins: Belal Muhammad (UFC 315, for the title), Gilbert Burns (UFC 299), Kevin Holland, Randy Brown, Ramazan Emeev
Jack Della Maddalena was 14 when he followed his older brother Josh into a boxing gym, and the reason was almost comically modest. He wanted to be fitter for rugby season. He’d been playing since he was eight and wore his school’s colors from year six through year twelve, so the gloves were meant to be cross-training, a way to show up in better shape for the real thing. Somewhere in there the order of things flipped. He fell for boxing, and when his rugby days ended he went into MMA full-time.
He was born Giacomo Della Maddalena on September 10, 1996, in Perth, to a family of Australian and Italian descent, with a grandfather from Sardinia. He spent part of his schooling at St. Kevin’s College in Melbourne, where Olympic rugby sevens player Henry Hutchison was a friend and classmate, before coming home to finish at Aquinas College. He still follows the Wallabies and the Fremantle Dockers, which tells you something about a guy whose sporting identity was built long before anyone called him JDM.
Starting from 0-2
The professional start was rough enough to end a lot of careers. On March 12, 2016, Aldin Bates stopped him by TKO in Round 3. In his next fight, Darcy Vendy submitted him in the first round. Two fights, two losses, and nothing about that record suggested a future world champion.
What followed was nine straight wins. He took the Eternal MMA welterweight title and defended it four times, and he also held the Reign Fighting welterweight belt. That’s the part of the story people skip, years on the Australian regional circuit with nobody in Las Vegas paying attention. On September 14, 2021, he got his audition at Dana White’s Contender Series 39, beat Ange Loosa by unanimous decision, and earned the UFC contract.
Four first-round finishes, then the grind
His UFC debut at UFC 270 in January 2022 was supposed to be against Warlley Alves, who pulled out in early January. Pete Rodriguez stepped in and was finished by TKO in the first round. Then came Ramazan Emeev at UFC 275 (first-round TKO), Danny Roberts in November 2022 (first-round TKO) and Randy Brown at UFC 284 (first-round submission). Three straight Performance of the Night bonuses, a stack of 2022 newcomer honors including ESPN’s UFC Men’s Rookie of the Year and UFC.com’s Newcomer of the Year, and suddenly the kid who started 0-2 was the fighter everyone wanted to talk about.
I’m usually the first to roll my eyes at a hype train built on three wins. His was built on four finishes in the UFC and 13 straight overall, and then he did the harder thing, which was prove he could win when nobody was falling down.
UFC 290 in July 2023 collapsed around him. Sean Brady withdrew with an injury, and replacement Josiah Harrell was pulled the day before the event after being diagnosed with Moyamoya disease during his pre-fight medical screening. One week later Della Maddalena was in the cage anyway, edging Bassil Hafez by split decision in a fight that earned both men Fight of the Night. Two months after that he beat Kevin Holland by split decision, though all 16 media scorecards had it for him.
Then Gilbert Burns at UFC 299 in March 2024, a third-round TKO that got him another Performance of the Night and a Fan’s Choice Comeback of the Year nomination. Nobody gets nominated for a comeback when the fight goes their way from the opening bell.
The belt, and the fall
He was booked to headline against Leon Edwards in March 2025 and was pulled from that fight for something bigger. On May 10, 2025, at UFC 315, he beat Belal Muhammad by unanimous decision to become the first Australian UFC welterweight champion. UFC.com ranked it the No. 4 fight of the year. The win also capped an eight-fight streak that ties him with Edwards and Ian Machado Garry for the third-longest in welterweight history.
The reign lasted six months. Islam Makhachev vacated the lightweight title, moved up, and took the belt from him at UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden on November 15, 2025, a unanimous decision that Yahoo’s coverage described as dominant over five rounds.
The rebound fight came at home. On May 2, 2026, he headlined UFC Fight Night 275 in Perth against Carlos Prates and lost by TKO in Round 3. Prates’ manager, Lucas Lutkus, later told MMA Fighting that Della Maddalena never wrestled and was forced to use it against his fighter, and that Prates hadn’t bothered defending a late takedown in a first round he felt he’d already won. That’s a rival’s camp talking, so take the framing with salt. Still, a boxer who reached for takedowns in front of his own city tells you how hard that night was.
Where he stands
The division is moving without him. Makhachev pulled out of a planned January defense against Prates, so the UFC booked Prates against unbeaten Michael Morales for an interim title in the UFC 336 co-main event on January 30 in Toronto. Lutkus said Prates was promised that shot minutes after he knocked out Della Maddalena. MMA Mania still listed JDM at No. 4 in the welterweight rankings this week, while Knockout Daily’s Cagefile rankings data has him at No. 11.
He sounds like a man who has done the honest math on the last year. Speaking with Bedtime MMA, he admitted the Perth booking came too fast. “I feel like the last one, I sort of just jumped into the Perth fight because I kinda had to,” he said. “My plan after the last fight was develop the skills, become a better martial artist.”
There’s been heat around a fight with Canadian contender Mike Malott, and he’s open to it. “Yeah, for sure. I’ll be into that,” he said. He just won’t bend the calendar for it, and he isn’t chasing a home crowd either. “I do like traveling for fights,” he said, adding, “I feel definitely less pressure fighting elsewhere.”
I like this version of him. Twelve months ago he was the champion everyone in Perth wanted to see, and he let that pull him into a fight before he was ready. Now he’s saying no to a hometown-adjacent card in Sydney on February 7 and to Toronto in January, because he wants the time in the gym more than the date on a poster.
“My best performances in front of me, so this isn’t the end,” he said. “This is just another speed bump that we’re getting up from.”
Toronto and Sydney will go on without him. His stated target is April or May.
