“Couldn’t imagine Maddalena stopping wrestling” of Islam Makhachev, says Former AKA Fighter

Islam Makhachev is preparing for his chance to become a two-division champion in a looming matchup against welterweight titleholder Jack Della Maddalena, and a former AKA-based fighter has weighed in on this pursuit from AKA product, Makhachev.

Andrew Sanchez has worked at some of the best MMA gyms in the world, including a prior history of working out of American Kickboxing Academy, which is where Islam Makachev fights out of. Sanchez appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts ahead of his fight with former PFL champion Impa Kasanganay on August 21st in the PFL smart cage.

When referencing the Makhachev welterweight title bid coming up against Della Maddalena in the context of what his thoughts on this looming contest are, Andrew Sanchez said,

“I trained at AKA. I trained around the Russians, but they’re very kind of like; they have their own group, their own clique. I wasn’t really in with them in that way. I mean, I think he’s [Islam Makhachev’s] an incredible fighter. Yeah, incredible wrestler. I couldn’t imagine [Jack Della] Maddalena stopping his offensive wrestling to be honest.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEJ8UlASUAE&t=1027s

Islam Makhachev may be unable to handle Jack Della Maddalena’s power, according to a former two-division UFC title challenger

While Andrew Sanchez is confident that the wrestling of Islam Makhachev will behoove him but, a prolific MMA analyst is unsure about how the former lightweight champion will be able to deal with the power coming up to 170 pounds. Kenny Florian expressed this thought during an episode of the Anik & Florian Podcast from May, and someone like Ken Flo, who has fought across four weight classes in the UFC, has unique insights on this topic.

The podcast episode came shortly after Jack Della Maddalena claimed the welterweight strap from Belal Muhammad at UFC 315, and Florian admitted to getting chills thinking about some of the shots that Muhammad withstood in that Montreal title bout.

The former UFC lightweight and featherweight title challenger referred to Muhammad’s chin as legendary, and Florian mentioned it’s hard for him to fathom any 155-pound competitor in MMA being able to take those sorts of strikes from Jack Della Maddalena.