On Saturday, May 10, in Montreal, Quebec, some of the best fighters in the world came together to duke it out for UFC 315. This brought back some old fighters and created new champions. The biggest fight of the night was the men’s welterweight title fight with defending champion Belal Muhammad and challenger Jack Della Maddalena. In the end, after a hard-fought five rounds, JDM won by unanimous decision, making him the new welterweight champion.
There were also some other big events of the fight night, with 38-year-old José Aldo coming back to the UFC to fight Aiemann Zahabi. Aiemann Zahabi won that fight, and José Aldo announced his retirement for the second and probably final time from fighting.
In the Women’s Flyweight Championship, Valentina Shevchenko was able to defend her title as the flyweight champion against Manon Fiorot in a unanimous decision victory. Natalia Silva was able to defeat champion Alexa Grasso, giving her a shot at the flyweight title. This card showcased talents and certainly entertained all the viewers.
When asked about his experience watching UFC 315, Caden Campoy ’28 said, “UFC 315 exceeded my expectations for sure because the title fight was expected to be an easy Belal win, but JDM actually fought really well and as a whole it was a really good fight. The rest of the card wasn’t bad either.”
The Cubs had many opinions, especially about the fight between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena. Giving his opinion on the fight, Samson Zikakis ’28 responded, “I really prefer JDM at the end of the day. I rooted for him because I like his style more, and I am happy I did because he got the big win.”
The fight between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena was a pivotal decision maker for the future of the UFC. Islam Makhachev had no intention of fighting his close friend Belal for the welterweight title, but since Jack Della Maddalena currently holds the title, Islam plans to fight for it to move up to welterweight and secure that title.
This leaves a spot for the highly anticipated lightweight championship fight between Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira in UFC 317.
With the retirements, the major upsets, and new title shots, UFC 315 is a card to remember. The results of the fights are already changing the trajectory of the UFC, with the open lightweight title leading to the highly anticipated fight between Oliveira and Ilia, to Islam moving up to welterweight to challenge the new champion Jack Della Maddalena, and the retirement of José Aldo.
One thing is apparent: UFC 315 will be remembered as the night when weight divisions were redefined and new champions were crowned, while old champions were dethroned.
