Jack Della Maddalena had a great system from Craig Jones, but ex-ONE fighter says “I may have a better system” | BJPenn.com

Jack Della Maddalena dropped his 170-pound belt to Islam Makhachev at UFC 322, with a fellow Australian martial artist thinking there might be a better methodology JDM could have used than what Craig Jones gave him. Reece McLaren is one person who has represented Australia well in his own MMA career and the former ONE Championship hero took issue with fellow countryman JDM losing his UFC crown.

With Craig Jones also previously training Alexander Volkanovski prior to his own fighting efforts with Makhachev, he has molded himself into someone who has a strong strategy for countering the thorough submission dominance and fighting pressure-oriented fights from the Caucasus mountains. When talking about the title loss to his Australian fighting compatriot at UFC 322 and his thoughts on that particular fight, McLaren said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“Yeah, it got hard to watch. It looked like maybe Jack had an injury or something. Maybe his back was acting up. There were rumors that his back was acting up in fight camp. I’m not sure how true they are, but Craig’s [Jones’] system is great. I just think I may have a better system. I mean, I’ve fought some of the best wrestlers and never been stopped.”

Reece McLaren: “I just don’t think they dealt with what was really holding Jack back [Della Maddalena] on the ground”

When asked what it was about his system that made it a more effective methodology than the blueprint Craig Jones has provided to combat the Dagestan-based grapplers’ dominance in MMA, McLaren stated [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“It’s just; I don’t know exactly what’s different exactly, but I know I addressed the problem firsthand. That’s my first thing, addressing the problem. I just don’t think they were dealing with what really kept Jack on the ground. I just think it was; it seemed to me; I didn’t see the fight like I saw from the highlights, it looked like the cross face gave Jack the problem.”

“So no octopus guardno inverted K. Again, I’d really have to look into it. I tried to catch it. I can’t fucking buy it anywhere. It’s not on Fight Pass yet and Kayo is just a nightmare to try to navigate. Yeah, the highlights look like there were a few things that just weren’t addressed and that’s what kept Jack on his back… Jack is the damn man. Like he will come back and when he does he will be a force to be reckoned with.”