The UFC gave Jack Della Maddalena two options for his return to the Octagon.
This Saturday, Della Maddalena faces Carlos Prates in one of the best non-title main events that we’re likely to get in 2026.
The two welterweight strikers meeting for the first time has the potential to be a firefight between two elite gunslingers for as long as it lasts.
While Della Maddalena and Prates agreed to fight each other long before the bout was made official, there was another opponent on the table for the former welterweight champion.
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Who is more likely to win a UFC title in the future: Jack Della Maddalena or Carlos Prates?
Explain your pick in the comments below
Jack Della Maddalena’s coach says they picked a different opponent to Carlos Prates for return fight
Jack Della Maddalena’s coach recently told the story of how his upcoming fight with Carlos Prates was made.
Scrappy MMA’s Ben Vickers said that after Della Maddalena lost his title to Islam Makhachev, the UFC presented them with two different options.
However, he believes that the promotion always had a preference of which one they wanted to be next due to how the process played out.
“They basically said you can fight fighter A or fighter B. We picked fighter A and they gave us fighter B,” he told Southern Cross Combat. “They basically wanted a certain fight, I think. We are and will always be anyone, anywhere, anytime, and that’s Jack’s brand, so we would have fought anyone they put in front of us.”
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Vickers said that he didn’t want to name the other fighter in case it impacted Della Maddalena’s career by upsetting the UFC.
That being said, ‘JDM’ may have already revealed who the other welterweight contender that was put forward was.
“I was excited,” Della Maddalena told MMA Junkie when sharing how he reacted to the Prates fight being pitched. “Carlos and Michael Morales, they were sort of the two names that were floating about, that the UFC said they were keen to matchup, so I was just sort of waiting but either one of those. I was really excited about either one of those.”
Morales recently met with Hunter Campbell which suggests that he could have an announcement for his next fight coming in the near future.
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