Ex-UFC champ advises Jack Della Maddalena to adopt 'rookie' mentality

Eddie Alvarez wants Jack Della Maddalena to sit back and smell the roses a bit to reignite his passion.

Della Maddalena (18-4 MMA, 8-2 UFC) went from a UFC welterweight champion on an 18-fight winning streak to being dominated in his past two outings against Islam Makhachev at UFC 322 then Carlos Prates at UFC Fight Night 275 this past Saturday at RAC Arena in Perth, Western Australia.

Alvarez knows what it's like to go from UFC champion to an eventual losing skid, and he advises Della Maddalena to take some time off before potentially having to give rising contenders an opportunity.

"It's very difficult to climb back and fight guys who aren't as well known, but they're even more dangerous than the well known guys," Alvarez told MMA Junkie. "So, it feels like you're taking a step backwards, and it's a tough spot to be in as a fighter. I feel like when you get there to that mountain top, I think the best thing to do is to tell the promotion, 'Hey, I'm taking some time off. I need time to build up gratitude to be able to get my fight again.'

"Forget about the money, forget about the rankings, 'I need to grow gratitude.' Maybe Jack just takes a bit of time off and grows that again and realizes maybe I'm not going to get the largest names I was getting or the guys in front of me, but I'm going to get dangerous fights, and I've just got to go back to being a rookie in the UFC again, and having the same kind of gratitude for it that you had in the beginning. The same excitement. Sometimes that excitement and that gratitude is the defining factor of whether you win them fights."

Della Maddalena came up big as an underdog when he dethroned Belal Muhammad to become champion at UFC 315. He was then dominated on the ground in a title loss against Makhachev, before getting outstruck and finished by Prates.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ex-UFC champ advises Jack Della Maddalena on dealing with losing skid