Jack Della Maddalena had to rally in the final round to earn a win over Gilbert Burns at UFC 299 recently to preserve his unbeaten record in the promotion, and now he’s revealed that not only did he suffer a broken arm during the fight, but he was also suffering from a staph infection less than two weeks out from the event.
“I had staph just heading into, just before we left,” Della Maddalena said on The Grin Reapers Podcast. “It was Wednesday the week before fight week, I was on antibiotics. I think it was like, really sore the weekend before.
“It had gotten quite a lot better, so I was thinking, ‘The antibiotics are obviously working.’ It was just like a little pimple on my knee. My knee swelled up. It was just painful. I just didn’t really train. Just chilled for the first four days we were there (in Miami).”
According to Maddalena’s coach Ben Vickers the infection was bad enough that it was challenging for his fighter to just get on the plane to go to Miami in the first place.
“Let’s be honest: You limped on to the plane with staph,” Vickers said. “He limped on to the plane on antibiotics the Wednesday before fight week. We’ve got guys pulling out of fights two weeks out with staph. Jack was never going to pull out. But unfortunately, we lost a week of training.”
It all worked out in the end, with Maddalena emerging with a late KO victory over Burns to go 7-0 in the UFC so far.
Don’t expect him to be quickly back in the Octagon however as he’s since undergone surgery due to actually having broke his arm during the fight.
“I had surgery. I think 12 weeks is like the full contact sort of area. I feel like I can be fit in 12 weeks.”
Maddalena is already looking ahead to his next fight though and the No.5 ranked contender is eager to face another rising force in the division, the No.3 placed Shavkat Rakhmonov next, though he’s also noted his interest in fighting former champion Kamaru Usman as well.
