Jack Della Maddalena lands vicious knee, knocks Gilbert Burns out late at UFC 299
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, March 9, 2024, for UFC 299, a 14-fight card going down from the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
Headlining the event is bantamweight championship rematch between Sean O’Malley (17-1, 1 NC) and the only man to ever defeat him, no. 5 ranked Marlon Vera (23-8-1).
Co-headlining the event is a lightweight encounter between no. 3 ranked former interim champion Dustin Poirier (29-8, 1 NC) and no. 11 ranked Benoit Saint-Denis (13-1, 1 NC).
Our first feature fight of the evening came in the welterweight division between no. 4 ranked former title challenger Gilbert Burns (22-7) and no. 11 ranked Jack Della Maddalena (17-2).
Burns, following a six-fight win streak from 2018 to 2020, had since gone 3-3 showcasing wins over Stephen Thompson (UD), Neil Magny (arm-triangle choke), and Jorge Masvidal (UD), with losses coming to former champion Kamaru Usman (TKO), Khamzat Chimaev (UD), and Belal Muhammad (UD).
Della Maddalena on the other hand had gone a perfect 6-0 inside the octagon with wins over Pete Rodriguez (KO), Ramazan Emeev (TKO), Danny Roberts (TKO), Randy Brown (rear naked choke), Bassil Hafez (SD), and Kevin Holland (SD). In fact, he’d gone 16-0 since opening up his career with a record of 0-2, avenging one of those defeats prior to joining the UFC’s stacked welterweight roster.
Continue reading to see how this welterweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Jack Della Maddalena def. Gilbert Burns via TKO (knee & punches) at 3:43 of round three
Burns lands a good body kick followed by a leg kick in the early goings of the bout, soon after securing a takedown, immediately taking Della Maddalena’s back. Della Maddalena is able to return to his feet and eventually separate from the clinch, where he got to work with his boxing, landing a lot of good punches at range.
Burns secured another takedown toward the end of round one and ended it in top position.
After getting taken down early in the second Della Maddalena continues to box Burns up, chasing him around the octagon landing good combinations. He was however taken down again at the end of the middle stretch and ended the round with Burns taking his back.
Della Maddalena continued to look sharp with his hands early on in the third and final round, though he was again taken down about two minutes in. After Burns controlled him along the fence and nearly took his back, searching for the rear naked choke, Della Maddalena escaped the position at got right to his feet.
Once he returned to his feet Burns shot in on another takedown attempt, eating a vicious knee that badly hurt and dropped the former title challenger. Della Maddalena followed up with a barrage of punches and elbows that stopped the fight, many of which were unnecessary. It probably should’ve been stopped a little sooner.
After it looked like Jack Della Maddalena was going to lose a decision tonight he jumped on the opportunity to finish the fight late, winning his seventh-straight UFC fight, and 17th-straight MMA fight overall. Though he was taken down a few times, he didn’t get submitted, and more often than not he got back to his feet, which eventually led to this knockout win at UFC 299.
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