There’s a new pacesetter in town at 170-pounds.

In the main event of the UFC’s latest event in Montreal, the 28-year-old Jack Della Maddalena became the third Australian to win UFC gold as he outpointed the now former champion Belal Muhammad across five rounds in the UFC 315 main event. The scorecards (48-47 x2, 49-46) didn’t tell the full story, as Della Maddalena saw significant success on the feet throughout and fought off all but one of Muhammad’s takedown attempts throughout 25-minutes of action.

Afterwards, both men wore damage across their faces and speaking to the media, including The Mac Life, the new champion said the contest was just about as tough as he was expecting.

“I was expecting a tough fight,” he said. “Obviously, he’s a good fighter — pressure fighter, good wrestling, good… he’s pretty well-rounded.
So yeah, I was expecting a tough fight.

“I mean, he was saying he wasn’t going to shoot takedowns, but I was expecting… I was expecting, like, I guess, an all-round offence,” he added. “And yeah, I guess you can never expect anything — you just gotta roll with it. And that’s, I feel like, what I did.”

Arguably the most dramatic moment in the fight came in the fifth when Della Maddalena repeatedly found a home for his strikes, appearing to visibly weaken Muhammad towards the bell.

“I was hoping to get him out of there. I’d been thinking all week it’d be cool to get that, like, late fight finish — like the Gilbert Burns,” he said. “Like, it felt good to rally through and then take him out at the end.

“You never know. But I was confident I’d done pretty good work. But I guess you never know when you leave it to the judges.”