Jack Della Maddalena had amazing system from Craig Jones but ex-ONE fighter says “possibly I’ve got a better system”

Jack Della Maddalena dropped his 170-pound strap to Islam Makhachev at UFC 322, with a fellow Australian martial artist thinking there may be a better methodology JDM could have used than what Craig Jones gave him. Reece McLaren is an individual who has represented Australia well in his own MMA career and the former ONE Championship stalwart weighed in on his combat compatriot JDM losing his UFC crown.

With Craig Jones previously also training Alexander Volkanovski ahead of his own fighting efforts with Makhachev, he has fashioned himself as someone who has a strong strategy to counteract the thorough dominance of submission grappling pressure-oriented fighting from the Caucasus mountains. When touching on the title loss for his Australian combat compatriot at UFC 322 and his thoughts on that particular fight, McLaren said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“Yeah, it was getting hard to watch. It looked like maybe Jack had an injury or something. Maybe his back was playing up. There were rumors that his back was playing up in the fight camp. Not sure how true they are, but Craig’s [Jones’] system’s amazing. I just think that possibly I’ve got a better system. I mean, I’ve fought some of the best of the best grapplers and never been held down.”

Reece McLaren: “I just don’t think that they were addressing what was really keeping Jack [Della Maddalena] on the ground”

When asked what it was about his system that made it a more effective methodology than the blueprint Craig Jones has given to combat the dominance of Dagestan-based grapplers in MMA, McLaren stated [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“It’s just; I don’t know exactly what is exactly different, but I know that I addressed the problem firsthand. That’s my first thing is addressing the problem. I just don’t think that they were addressing what was really keeping Jack on the ground. I just think that was; it looked to me; I haven’t seen the fight what I’ve seen from the highlights it looked like the cross face was what was giving Jack the problem.”

“Therefore no octopus guard, no reverse K. Again, I’d have to really watch it. I’ve been trying to catch it. I can’t bloody buy it anywhere. It’s not on Fight Pass yet and and Kayo is just a nightmare to try and navigate. Yeah, the highlight reels look like there was a few things that just weren’t being addressed and that was what was keeping Jack on his back… Jack’s the f***ing man. Like he will be back and when he is back, he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.”