Jack Della Maddalena has suffered the most brutal loss of his UFC career, with the former welterweight champion beaten to a pulp in a one-sided loss to Carlos Prates in Perth.
In his first fight since losing his crown to future hall of famer Islam Makhachev in New York, Della Maddalena (18-4) struggled from the outset of Saturday night’s bout against knockout machine Prates (24-7).
Della Maddalena’s right leg copped a battering from early in the fight, but it looked like there was a path to victory when the West Australian easily took down his opponent in the dying seconds of the opening round.
The path forward for Della Maddalena was simple: take down his opponent and get the submission win in front of a home town crowd.
Easier said than done.
Prates unleashed a series of knees to Della Maddalena’s face to leave the former champion bloodied and stunned.
The jabs and elbows were also brutal, and the 29-year-old crashed to the canvas in pain late in the second round when Prates kicked his leading leg.
It left Della Maddalena with a limp, and he was taken down in similar fashion twice more in the third round.
Each time that happened, Prates motioned his opponent to get up to his feet, knowing a knockout blow wasn’t far away.
With a little less than two minutes remaining in the round, Della Maddalena hit the canvas again.
And with Della Maddalena showing no desire to get up this time around, Prates kicked at his grounded opponent and then unleashed a series of brutal elbows before the fight was stopped.
“Jack has really good hands. I was really scared about his hands,” Prates said.
“But I believed I’m a better striker. I can punch, I can knee, I can kick.
“So I’m better, and now I’m the No 1 contender, and I can’t wait to see Makhachev-Machado, and then I’m going to fight the winner.
“Brazil has never had a champion in the welterweight division. I will be the first.”
In the co-main event, West Australia’s Quillan Salkilld (12-1) produced yet another first-round knockout win, defeating veteran Beneil Dariush in their lightweight battle.
Salkilld was left stunned and momentarily hit the canvas after copping a brutal jab just 23 seconds into the contest.
Dariush went in for the take down a short time later, and Salkilld spent the next two minutes trying to get out of the grapple.
When Salkilld finally got free, he unleashed a series of brutal jabs and hooks to stun Dariush, who by the end of it was left on the canvas protecting his head as the local fan favourite rained down a series of blows.
“I knew he was going to wrestle, I was excited to do some of the wrestling exchanges,” Salkilld said.
“We ended up having a scrap, he stunned me a little bit.
“But us Aussies are fucking tough, so it’s going to take a lot more than that to put us away.”
Flyweight Steve Erceg made it two wins on the trot with a unanimous decision victory over Tim Elliott in their flyweight battle.
After an even first round in which both fighters enjoyed their moments, Erceg (14-4) pummelled Elliott (22-14-1) with a series of powerful jabs over rounds two and three to leave his opponent flailing.
All three judges scored it 29-28 to Erceg, whose orthodox fighting style was far too superior for the twitchy, unpredictable and often kamikaze methods of Elliott.
“I knew he’d be weird,” Erceg said.
“It was like a clash between ugly and pretty. Textbook versus unorthodox.”
