“Win Every Minute, Round by Round, Toe-to-Toe” – Islam Makhachev’s Coach Preparing for War Against Jack Della Maddalena

Javier Mendez is preparing Islam Makhachev to go five hard rounds with welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena.

After vacating his lightweight title following the events of UFC 315 in Montreal, the ‘Dagestani Destoyer’ will move up to 170 for a crack at the division’s new top dog. No official announcements regarding when and where the two will tussle, but Makhachev and his team are already deep in preparation for what is sure to be one of the biggest fights of 2025.

Having finished eight of his last nine opponents, Makhachev is already showing up on sportsbooks as a 2-to-1 favorite, but Mendez, legendary MMA coach and founder of American Kickboxing Academy, is preparing his fighter to not just go the distance, but to dominate all 25 minutes of their impending title clash.

“Because of the respect for Jack and any champion, I never say we’re going to finish him because that’s shortsightedness,” Mendez said in an interview with Submission Radio. “I always like going five-round wars. I like being in the mental battle all the way through from the beginning to the end. Anybody else, anybody on my team could say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to finish him in this, we’re going to do that.’ But not me.

“I’m going to go five-round war. We’re going to go toe-to-toe with them. We’re going to win every round. We’re going to win every minute, you know, and that type of scenario is the way I like to be engaged.”

Since 2019, only one fighter has gone the distance with Islam Makhachev

Makhachev has only gone to decision five times inside the Octagon, winning all of them, including his war of attrition with Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284 in Australia.

Dustin Poirier nearly took him the distance last summer before succumbing to a d’arce choke just past the halfway point of the fifth round.