UFC 315 from Montreal had it all — a new champion at welterweight, a brilliant performance for an all-time great, a legend laying down the gloves and more.
In the main event, Australia’s Jack Della Maddalena showed no fear of being Belal Muhammad’s first title defense. He threw hard shots at Muhammad all night while expertly avoiding his takedown attempts. By the end of the five-round battle, Della Maddalena ended up with the belt around his waist.
Women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko did what she had already done seven times before and successfully defended her title against Manon Fiorot. It was a masterful performance that begs the question of where she sits among the greatest in MMA history.
And speaking of greatest, Hall of Famer José Aldo retired again after losing to Aiemann Zahabi, his second loss in three fights since he unretired last year. Was the year we got to watch him worth it?
Jeff Wagenheim, Andreas Hale and Brett Okamoto share their thoughts on these fights.
Bring on the Della Maddalena-Makhachev superfight
Della Maddalena has become a UFC champion so quickly that he barely had time to work his way up the welterweight rankings. After joining the promotion in 2022, he was fighting a top-5 opponent for the first time on Saturday at UFC 315. But in terms of championship aspirations, this was the only 170-pounder who truly mattered: the champion. Della Maddalena dethroned Muhammad by beating him to the punch for five rounds, moving to 8-0 in the UFC and extending his overall winning streak to 18.
No sooner had Della Maddalena been handed the belt than the narrative moved on to his first title defense, which seems to be leaning in the direction of lightweight champion Islam Makhachev in a champion versus champion superfight. Had Muhammad won, the UFC would have gone in a different direction, because Muhammad has trained with Makhachev and the two were opposed to fighting one another. But Della Maddalena eliminated that complication — and set up what one might characterize as a grudge match.
Della Maddalena is from Perth, Australia, making him the third UFC champion from Australia, after middleweight Robert Whittaker and featherweight Alexander Volkanovski. The newest champ will begin his reign by trying to get one back for Australia from Makhachev, the man who twice defeated Volkanovski.
“It’s a beautiful challenge. He’s pound-for-pound No. 1,” Della Maddalena said of Makhachev. “I’m gonna get it back for Volk.”
If he does, there will still be welterweight challenges ahead, first and foremost the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov, who was in line for this title shot but is recovering from injury.
Della Maddalena produced an excellent performance against Muhammad, fueled mainly by his sharp boxing but aided by strong takedown defense. Muhammad, who had scored nine takedowns while taking the title from Leon Edwards last July, managed only three on nine attempts in this fight. That kept the fight in Della Maddalena’s striking wheelhouse, where he went to work and bloodied up Muhammad. Can he do that against Makhachev, who is slick in both wrestling and standup? The odds will surely be against the new champion, but that’s nothing new for a guy who wouldn’t even have been here if not for another fighter’s injury — but showed emphatically that he belongs. — Wagenheim
Shevchenko makes another challenge look easy
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Valentina Shevchenko dominates on her way to retaining belt in co-main event
Valentina Shevchenko dominates her match vs. Manon Fiorot in the co-main event of UFC 315 to retain the title.
It has gotten to the point that Shevchenko is being taken for granted because her greatness is so familiar. The 37-year-old endured a grueling war of attrition to retain her flyweight title against Fiorot, proving she is still the queen of the mountain. Her stellar career has been so sublime that a win over yet another contender is treated as routine. But Shevchenko halted Fiorot’s 12-fight winning streak and added another name to her portfolio. She continues to add to her record-breaking career with her 10th title fight win, tying Nunes for the most in UFC women’s history. Not to mention that she is now the oldest fighter to defend a title at a weight class lower than welterweight.
The expectation is that she will welcome the challenge of strawweight champion Zhang Weili next. A win over another woman considered one of the greats will inch her closer to Amanda Nunes as the greatest women’s mixed martial artist of all time. Shevchenko is often forgotten as the woman who pushed Nunes to the limit twice, despite fighting well above her preferred weight class.
With Nunes expected to come out of retirement to fight the winner of the women’s bantamweight title fight between Julianna Peña and Kayla Harrison at UFC 316 on June 7, there could be a scenario in which Nunes and Shevchenko meet for a third time with more than just a world championship on the line.
The dream scenario would see Shevchenko defend her title against Zhang and get one last shot at Nunes if she can regain the bantamweight crown. But even if the latter doesn’t come to fruition — and there are a lot of hurdles to get there — Shevchenko has cemented herself as an all-time great. — Hale
What was the UFC trying with Aldo’s comeback?
When it comes to fight promotion, the UFC is sheer ingenuity, OK? No one can debate that. The UFC has been growing exponentially for years, and Dana White’s vision for the company has been proven true over and over again. That said, I don’t get what happened with Jose Aldo.
The Brazilian legend came out of retirement last year for one more run, and the promotion ended up booking him against Jonathan Martinez, Mario Bautista and Zahabi. Now, full credit to all three of those fighters, but did any of them truly build his brand after fighting Aldo? Martinez lost, Bautista won a slow split decision and Zahabi won a very fun fight, but not in a way that will truly put him over the hump. In other words, the fans got one of the most beloved names in the sport back, and he actually had some gas left in the tank, but now that he has re-retired after the loss to Zahabi, what did the fans really get from his return?
If this comeback was only going to last 12 months, couldn’t the UFC have thought bigger? I know Dominick Cruz ended up not fighting again because of an injury earlier this year during camp, but the company could have tried to book that one. I do understand using him like anyone else, booking him against a number (a ranked opponent) instead of a name, but also, I don’t. The matchmaking was good enough, but is that all we want for Aldo? I would have rather seen the UFC find a way to get him in the Octagon with Sean O’Malley, who Aldo might not have beat, but he showed he had enough to make it competitive. There would have been a payoff, win or lose.
I suppose any way the UFC went, the result would have been similar, but it felt like there was an opportunity to do something more meaningful. A rare slip up by the promotion. — Okamoto
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