It’s finally official that former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev will take on welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena in the main event of UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 15th.

Fans have been waiting for this announcement since Makhachev opted to vacate the 155lb title back in May after expressing his desire to become welterweight champion.

The 33-year-old Makhachev had initially won the lightweight title back in 2022 by submitting Charles Oliveira, and has since gone on to successfully defend the belt on four occasions.

That includes beating Alexander Volkanovski twice, the latter of which was a brutal KO, followed by back-to-back submission wins over Dustin Poirier and Renato Moicano, propelling him to No.2 in the current pound-for-pound rankings.

Now Makhachev hopes he can enhance his legacy further by challenging for the 170lb strap against newly crowned champion Maddalena, who ended Belal Muhammad’s 11-fight winning streak to seize the title by unanimous decision back in May.

That was the 28-year-old Maddalena’s eighth win in a row in the UFC, having also beaten the likes of Gilbert Burns, Kevin Holland and Randy Brown on his way to the top.

Maddalena vs. Makhachev fronts a UFC 322 card that will also feature a women’s flyweight title clash as current divisional queen Valentina Shevchenko goes up against Weili Zhang, who has vacated her strawweight title in order to challenge her.