On the night of November 15-16, the UFC 322 tournament will take place in New York, where in the main fight Jack Della Maddalena and Islam Makhachev will determine the welterweight champion. This will be the second fight for the Australian against a Russian representative.

And the first one ended as sadly as possible for the Russian representative.

“Humor never brings any good”

In 2017, Ramazan Emeev came to the UFC as one of the best middleweights performing outside the promotion. The Russian held the belt in M-1 Global for a long time, having fought ten fights in the organization, in which he suffered only one failure.

In the UFC, Emeev performed less impressively, but did not fall below a certain level. By mid-2022, his record included five wins and two losses. True, the Russian won all successful fights exclusively on points; there were not enough early victories. Five months earlier, Ramazan also suffered a disappointing defeat, losing to Danny Roberts by split decision.

In June 2022, Ramazan had to fight one of Dana White’s favorites, Jack Della Maddalena, at UFC 275. The Australian with powerful striking technique made his way to the UFC through Dana White’s Contender Series. Before the fight with the Russian, he managed to knock out Pete Rodriguez in the first round.

The head of the promotion always liked bright drummers, but this did not bother Emeev at all, who wanted to stop the hype around his bright opponent.

“There’s a lot of hype around him, and sometimes it puts people too high, so I need to calm him down a little, let him understand that too much hype will never do any good,” Emeev said in an interview with the official UFC website.

Jack Della Maddalena and Ramazan Emeev / Photo: © Yong Teck Lim / Staff / UFC / Gettyimages.ru

“I met the league halfway, they didn’t”

During the first minute of the fight, the opponents did not force events, choosing a convenient distance for attacks. The Australian did not demonstrate any incredible skill. Moreover, he found himself in a dangerous situation when a pass to the legs allowed Emeev to take the fight to the ground and go for a choke.

Jack, not without difficulty, freed himself from Ramazan’s tenacious grip, which our fighter should not have allowed under any circumstances. An exchange of blows in the standing position soon followed, which became fatal for the Russian.

The Australian delivered several precise and heavy blows to the head, after which Emeev simply fell forward. It took Della Maddalena less than three minutes to win an early victory and earn a bonus from the UFC.

Ramazan Emeev and Jack Maddalena / Photo: © Jeff Bottari / Contributor / UFC / Gettyimages.ru

After this, the Australian continued his winning streak in the UFC, winning the welterweight champion belt in 2025. But the Russian was treated as rudely as possible: he was simply fired. At the same time, you need to understand that Ramazan met the organization halfway, agreeing to enter the fight with an injury, so as not to spoil the tournament, in which many fights had already failed.

“I did this so that the league would not suffer. He competed with a serious injury and lost. It was a shame that I treated the UFC well, but they fired me. I met the league halfway, but she didn’t. I was fired. So, this is how it should be,” Emeev said in an interview with Metaratings.ru.

Ramazan has no complaints about Della Maddalena. The fighters keep in touch after the fight, congratulating each other on their successful performances. After that fight, Emeev did not enter the cage for two years, and in the summer of 2024 he successfully made his debut in the ASA. In the same organization in February of this year, he won his second victory in a row.

Watch the live broadcast of the UFC 322 tournament on the Match TV channels (from 04:00 Moscow time) and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.