UFC 315: Della Maddalena defeats Muhammad in welterweight title fight

Jack Della Maddalena upsets Belal Muhammad by unanimous determination to triumph welterweight rubric astatine UFC 315 successful Montreal.

Jack Della Maddalena took distant Belal Muhammad’s potent wrestling ability, allowing lone 1 takedown en way to becoming the caller welterweight champion successful the main lawsuit of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 315 successful Montreal, Canada.

He won the five-rounder by scores of 48-47, 48-47, 49-45 connected Saturday night.

Della Maddalena utilized measurement striking to frustrate the now-former welterweight champion, astir finishing the combat connected respective occasions. Della Maddalena (18-2, Mixed Martial Arts) has present won 18 successful a row. Muhammad (24-4, 1 No Contest) was making his archetypal rubric defence and had won 11 consecutive fights.

Della Maddalena credited Muhammad’s toughness but said post-fight that helium knew helium was not going to fto it gaffe away.

“It felt [expletive] good,” the Australian said with a smile.

He said helium was intrigued by UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev’s imaginable determination to welterweight, and was unfastened to exacting revenge connected the Russian. His chap Australian, Alexander Volkanovski, mislaid some bouts to Makhachev.

It is the archetypal nonaccomplishment for Muhammad, a Chicago native, since January 2019.

Australia’s Jack Della Maddalena, right, punches American Belal Muhammad during the welterweight bout astatine UFC 315 astatine Bell Centre successful Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 10, 2025 [Alexis Aubin/AFP]

Valentina Shevchenko successfully defended her UFC women’s flyweight rubric successful the co-main lawsuit implicit Manon Fiorot, winning by a unanimous 48-47, 48-47, 48-47 determination to manus Fiorot (12-2, MMA) her archetypal UFC loss.

Despite a intimately contested fight, Shevchenko (25-4, 1 NC MMA) pushed the gait successful the 4th and 5th rounds to tyre retired Fiorot and springiness the Frenchwoman small country to enactment aft signs of aboriginal occurrence done 3 gruelling rounds.

“I expected a hard fight,” Shevchenko, a 125-pounder from Kyrgyzstan, said successful the Octagon pursuing the win.

The triumph marked Shevchenko’s 14th successful the UFC, including 10 rubric fights.

Initially scheduled arsenic a bantamweight fight, Canadian featherweight Aiemann Zahabi earned a triumph by unanimous determination against erstwhile UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, taking the 3 scorecards by matching 29-28 scores.

Aldo astir finished Zahabi successful the 3rd circular with a caput kick, followed by a flurry of strikes. However, Zahabi was capable to past Aldo’s attacks, summation the apical position, and unfastened a chopped connected Aldo.

The triumph for Zahabi (13-2, MMA) marked Brazilian Aldo’s (32-10) last MMA fight, announcing his status successful the Octagon.

“I conscionable don’t person it successful my bosom immoderate more,” said Aldo, 38. “I deliberation this is the past clip you’re going to spot me.”

Jose Aldo of Brazil, left, fights Aiemann Zahabi of Canada successful a bantamweight bout during UFC 315 astatine Bell Centre connected May 10, 2025, successful Montreal, Quebec [Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images via AFP]

Women’s flyweight Natalia Silva of Brazil knocked disconnected erstwhile champion Alexa Grasso from her top-contender presumption with a unanimous determination win, each by 30-27 scores.

Silva (19-5-1, MMA) has won her archetypal six UFC fights, portion Mexico’s Grasso (16-5-1, MMA) has to instrumentality to the drafting committee to stay successful contention. Silva opened a noticeable chopped supra Grasso’s eyelid, swinging the momentum successful the 2nd circular earlier a one-sided Round 3 followed suit with ascendant kickboxing ability.

Lightweight Benoit Saint-Denis of France had nary occupation beating Canadian Kyle Prepolec, a precocious replacement, with an limb triangle choke astatine 2:35 of the 2nd round.

It was Saint-Denis’s (14-3) archetypal triumph since November 2023, snapping a two-fight losing skid. Prepolec (18-9) stepped successful for Joel Alvarez (22-3) and made his archetypal Octagon quality since 2019.