Jack Della Maddalena is confident he can “take out” Islam Makhachev when they meet in the UFC cage in the coming months.

It was confirmed by UFC brass this week that reigning 155-pound champion Makhachev will be Della Maddalena’s first test as welterweight champion after the Australian defeated the Russian’s training partner Belal Muhammad by decision at last weekend’s UFC 315 event in Montreal.

Makhachev will vacate his lightweight championship to do so, with former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria to take on Charles Oliveira to identify a new champ at 155-pounds.

But if the Russian fighter believes that he has been handed an easy route to two-division champ status, Della Maddalena has advised him to not think so fast.

“I’m sure people are just going to assume that Islam will just take me down and submit me pretty quickly,” he told Ariel Helwani, as reported by MMA Junkie. “He seems like a pretty big guy. I think he’ll be all right. I think I can take him out.

“Belal really just changes stance a lot, walks forward, but I think if I can have someone that just stays in the same stance, I don’t think Islam’s a very good striker,” he added.

“I think I could land a lot of shots, and I think I could take him out. Stuff the takedowns, if I get taken down, I believe I can get back to my feet.”

Of course, Makhachev is no stranger to Australian opponents having fought (and defeated) Della Maddalena’s compatriot Alexander Volkanovski on two occasions.

And this, according to JDM, is an ace up his sleeve as he prepares for the biggest fight of his career.

“I’m going to spend a bit of time with Volk,”he said. “If I was going to fight Islam, yeah, I would have to. I did (train with Volkanovski) before my last two fights.

“Both times about a week, a week to 10 days, but it was real beneficial. They’ve got a great team. Volk’s obviously the man, and he’s a multiple-time world champion.”