The Casual Take Misses the Entire Point
Everyone’s talking about the Makhachev Della Maddalena fight at UFC 322 like it was some inevitable wrestling clinic. Nineteen minutes of ground control at Madison Square Garden, strikers getting smothered by elite grapplers, same story we’ve seen a hundred times. Bloody Elbow writes it up, Sportskeeda does their recap, and everyone moves on to the next fight.
The Makhachev Della Maddalena result was predictable on paper. But here’s what matters: Nick Diaz just dropped one of the sharpest technical breakdowns we’ve seen this year, and if you missed it on Jake Shields’ podcast, you’re missing the entire story. This wasn’t just Makhachev being better—this was Della Maddalena failing to implement fundamental leverage principles.
Diaz, fresh from rehab and clearly still sharp as ever, watched all five rounds, and his assessment was brutal: “This guy didn’t execute like the leverage. The knee is the leverage… systematically break that.” That’s not trash talk. That’s a black belt explaining exactly where a supposed high-level MMA fighter failed basic grappling fundamentals.
The Makhachev Della Maddalena Leverage Problem Nobody’s Discussing
Why Knee Leverage Changes Everything
Here’s the reality that separates actual BJJ practitioners from MMA fighters who train some grappling: leverage isn’t strength, it’s geometry. When Makhachev established hip and shoulder control, which Della Maddalena reportedly acknowledged post-fight that the control felt different than anticipated from watching film,”—the Australian had a systematic path to escape. He just never took it.
Diaz’s breakdown of Makhachev’s Della Maddalena reveal wasn’t about one specific technique. It was about the fundamental principle of using your knee as the primary lever to create space, break grips, and prevent guard passes. Watch any high-level grappler defend position, and you’ll see constant knee framing, knee shields, and knee-based leverage to maintain distance. Della Maddalena? Twenty minutes of getting controlled without implementing these basics.
That’s the thing about MMA grappling versus actual BJJ—you can drill takedown defense and submission escapes all day, but if you don’t understand leverage principles, you’re just burning energy. Makhachev even threw shade post-fight: “He had nothing else besides that one move” after defending Della Maddalena’s sole reversal attempt. One scramble in 25 minutes. That’s not championship-level grappling.
The Training Camp Lie We Keep Believing
Della Maddalena admitted the control felt different from that in training footage. That tells you everything about his preparation. He watched a video, probably drilled some specific escapes with his coaches, and thought he was ready. But understanding leverage principles isn’t about memorizing sequences—it’s about internalizing concepts that work under pressure.
This connects directly to what we’ve been covering about how much professional grapplers really make. The economic reality of MMA training means fighters often can’t afford the specialized grappling coaching they need. Della Maddalena’s a dangerous striker who probably spends most of his training budget on stand-up work because that’s his identity. The grappling becomes an afterthought until someone like Makhachev exposes it.
Let’s Be Honest About the Pattern Here
This Isn’t New—It’s Predictable
Della Maddalena absorbed takedowns from Basile Hafiz, Gilbert Burns, and Belal Muhammad before this fight. The pre-fight odds had Makhachev at -250 to -300. The hard data was screaming that this was a mismatch on the ground. Yet somehow, Della Maddalena’s team thought they could overcome a fundamental skill gap with… what exactly? Hope?
The precedent is everywhere. Jon Jones versus Francis Ngannou hype always centered on Jones’ wrestling advantage because everyone knew Ngannou’s ground game was his weakness. Khabib’s entire championship run was built on exploiting strikers who never developed proper grappling fundamentals. Makhachev is continuing that legacy, and fighters keep walking into the same trap.
What do you expect when the UFC matchmaking prioritizes exciting strikers over well-rounded fighters? Della Maddalena got the title shot because he’s fun to watch knock people out. But at the championship level, one-dimensional skillsets get systematically destroyed.
Here’s My Bold Take: This Gets Worse Before It Gets Better
The Economics Won’t Allow Proper Grappling Development
My prediction—and I could be wrong—is that we’ll see more high-profile strikers get neutralized by elite grapplers this year, and the post-fight analysis will sound exactly like this one. The financial structure of MMA training—which we’ve broken down extensively regarding the hidden costs of BJJ training—doesn’t incentivize developing the kind of deep grappling knowledge that prevents these performances.
Diaz saying he could “pass your guard and tap you out,” unlike Makhachev’s control-heavy style, isn’t just talk. It’s pointing out that even among elite grapplers, there are levels. Makhachev controlled the position but didn’t finish because he’s a positional grappler. Someone with Diaz-level submission skills would have found the tap. That should terrify anyone in the welterweight division without serious ground credentials.
Where This Could Go Wrong
Now, I could be completely off here. Maybe Della Maddalena goes back, hires a legitimate BJJ black belt as a full-time coach, and spends six months doing nothing but positional sparring and leverage drills. Maybe the UFC starts requiring a minimum level of grappling competency before granting title shots. Maybe fighters start taking the ground game as seriously as striking.
But the economic incentives point the other way. Striking highlights get views. Knockouts sell pay-per-views. Wrestling-heavy fights get booed by casual fans. Until that changes, we’ll keep seeing talented strikers have their souls crushed by patient grapplers who understand the fundamentals.
What Happens Next for Both Fighters
Makhachev just proved he can dominate at welterweight, even though Du Plessis dismissed his middleweight dreams recently. He’s positioning himself as the most complete fighter in the UFC, and performances like this—total domination without taking damage—are exactly how you build that case.
Della Maddalena has a choice. He can go back to fighting strikers, where his knockout power makes him dangerous, or he can actually address the grappling deficiency that Diaz so perfectly diagnosed. The knee leverage principle Diaz highlighted isn’t some secret technique—it’s fundamental BJJ that any purple belt should understand. The fact that a UFC title challenger doesn’t implement it under pressure is embarrassing.
Here’s the deal: Reddit and Twitter are roasting Della Maddalena for “amateur mistakes,” and they’re right. But this is bigger than one fighter. This is about an entire generation of MMA athletes who think drilling techniques is the same as understanding principles. It’s not. And until that changes, we’ll keep watching elite grapplers make it look easy against supposed high-level competition.
The hardcore fans get it. The casuals will forget this fight in a week. But for anyone serious about understanding combat sports, Diaz just gave you a masterclass in fight analysis. Pay attention to the leverage. Everything else is just details.
