Jack Della Maddalena has become the latest victim of a supposed welterweight championship curse, suffering his second consecutive defeat. The post highlights a pattern where recent UFC welterweight champions have experienced losing streaks shortly after losing their titles. Former champions Johny Hendricks suffered three straight losses, Robbie Lawler four, Tyron Woodley four, Kamaru Usman three, and Leon Edwards three. Belal Muhammad has two losses in this streak, and now Della Maddalena joins with two consecutive defeats.
Jack Della Maddalena has joined a growing list of former UFC welterweight champions and title challengers derailed by consecutive defeats, dropping his second straight fight as of early May 2026 and adding another chapter to what observers are calling a divisional curse.
Della Maddalena, 29, carries a professional record of 18-4 and is currently ranked fourth in the welterweight division, sitting thirteenth on the pound-for-pound list. The Australian, who trains out of Scrappy MMA, is a switch-stance fighter standing five-foot-eleven with a 73-inch reach. He has been one of the more prolific strikers in the division, landing 5.57 significant strikes per minute at 51 percent accuracy, but back-to-back losses have now clouded what had been a rapid rise.
Former champion Belal Muhammad, now ranked sixth at welterweight and eighth pound-for-pound, is also part of the pattern with two consecutive defeats of his own. The 37-year-old American, who fights out of Roufusport, holds a 24-5 record and built his title reign on a combination of volume striking at 4.43 significant strikes per minute and a consistent takedown game averaging 2.14 per fifteen minutes.
The streak extends well beyond those two. Johny Hendricks, the 42-year-old former champion from Texas who averaged 3.83 takedowns per fifteen minutes during his career, endured three straight losses after his title run ended. Robbie Lawler lost four in a row after his reign, as did Tyron Woodley. Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards each suffered three consecutive defeats following their own championship tenures.
Why it matters
- The pattern now spans six former champions or top contenders across more than a decade of the welterweight division.
- Della Maddalena's back-to-back losses drop him further from title contention despite his elite striking output.
- Muhammad's two-fight skid, combined with Della Maddalena's, leaves the welterweight rankings in a volatile state with multiple top-ten fighters losing momentum simultaneously.
