“Great – I feel like he’s like a James Bond villain, so I’m happy to be James Bond, and I think it was the perfect response from him,” Maddalena told ESPN. “I don’t know how it works, but I guess his words can be seen as an agreement.”
“I heard he wants to fight in August. He’s got an injury, I’ve got an injury, and I think it works for me – we might do it in early to mid-August, maybe on the other side of the world. Who knows?”
At the same time, the Australian fighter is confident that he can not only inflict on the representative of Kazakhstan the first defeat in his career, but also do it early.
“I think I will finish him. I’ll go out there and shock the world. A lot of people have been quick to write me off, but I can destroy him and then get a title fight.”
On March 9 at UFC 299 in Miami, Jack Della Maddalena earned the organization’s seventh straight victory by knocking out former title challenger Gilbert Burns in the third round, and he did so with a broken hand.
Shavkat Rakhmonov, who rounds out the division’s top three, is riding a streak of six early wins in the UFC, finishing Stephen Thompson with a second-round rear-naked choke in his last fight.