A True Contender: Jack Della

When Jack Della (9-2) lost his second fight in a row to begin his career – a submission loss to Australian middleweight Darcy Vendy – he trudged back to the locker room defeated, ruing the errors which ultimately cost him the fight. 

After hearing the news, his trainer Ben Vickers, who couldn’t make the journey to Queensland to be in his corner, called Della to remind him he wasn’t an 0-2 fighter. Instead, Vickers told a then 19-year-old Della that he’d win his next 10 fights. 

And here we are: nine wins later, with a tenth to potentially secure a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series.

Jack Della and his team, after extending his win streak at Eternal 48.

The fight, scheduled for 14th of September, will see Della fight Ange Loosa (7-1), another highly touted prospect who has made his name throughout America’s regional MMA scene. 

Speaking about his opponent, Della believes Loosa matches up well with his skillset. 

“I think his style matches up well to mine,” said Della, “he’s the type of guy to pressure and come forward which is what I want. 

“I want to try land counter shots and damage him as he comes in” 

It’s no surprise Jack is receiving this opportunity with the UFC now. In his professional career, all eleven fights have ended in stoppages, something which has not only endeared him to Australian MMA fans, but evidently to the UFC as well. 

“I’ve never gone into a fight to win a decision. I can last a whole fight and keep doing what I’m doing, but my style creates finishes. I want to get clean finishes, that’s what I’m chasing,” said Della.

Jack has a fan-friendly style, with all his wins coming by KO.

This opportunity has been a long time coming too. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant fewer opportunities for international prospects such as Della. He was first touted to make his UFC debut in June of last year, as part of UFC 251 – the pay-per-view scheduled to take place in Perth, Della’s hometown – only for it to be cancelled. 

After receiving his call up to Dana White’s Contender Series, Della has committed to training full-time, something that wasn’t possible in the past. Previously, Della had juggled his fledgling MMA career with a job in finance, a far cry from his life as a mixed martial artist.

But despite juggling two occupations, Della has always been an astute student of mixed martial arts, a fighter who takes his preparation very seriously. His trainer believes this is what separates his student from the rest.

“I’ve never met an athlete like him before. I’ve got guys who are probably just as talented as him, but they don’t work as hard as Jack. He lives it, breathes it, and sleeps it.”

“I wish I could say ‘I’m the world’s best coach’ but I don’t think it’s true. I just think he’s really good.” said Vickers.

In the cage, Della is a no-nonsense pressure fighter with the ability to finish fights wherever they end up. He’s able to overwhelm his opponents by relentlessly coming forward; not allowing his opponents to catch a breath. Most importantly, he’s able to sense blood in the water too. 

“I know when to pull the trigger, I don’t pull it too early, I don’t pull it too late. I have a good idea of when I need to step on the gas and take my opponent out.” said Della.

Della has consistently improved throughout his young career.

In Della’s first professional fight he fought local rival Aldin Bates in a competitive affair which was ultimately decided in the final round when Bates overwhelmed Della, finishing him with ground and pound strikes. 

In his last outing, Della was able to avenge that loss by emphatically knocking Bates out early in the first round, ending any doubt of who was the better fighter between the two. 

Della avenged his first pro loss in a rematch at Eternal 53.

I asked Della whether he felt like giving up after beginning his career with two straight losses. 

“To be honest, no. I really enjoy competing and I knew I was better than those performances 

“Losing is part of this sport and you’ve got to be able to swallow the pill and move on. We put the losses on the back burner and figured out how to win so it was a good learning curve,” said Della. 

It’s not unusual for great fighters to lose in their professional debut. Legendary fighters including Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva and Amanda Nunes all lost in their professional debuts, but losing your first two fights is unusual. It’s a beginning that would make most reconsider their career and call it a day, but instead Della persisted. 

A 9-fight win streak, and now on the cusp of a UFC contract.

Della’s nine-fight win streak is a testament to his approach to mixed martial arts. He’s a calming presence, someone who relishes in the opportunity of competing without feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders.

This attitude has made the longest reigning welterweight champion in Eternal MMA history, and one of Australia’s best MMA fighters as well.  

Della’s next fight represents the biggest fight in his young career, a life changing opportunity to pursue his dream on the biggest stage but speaking to him you wouldn’t realise it. Instead, Della’s treating it like any other fight.


WATCH Dana White’s Contender Series on ESPN/Kayo Sports or UFC Fight Pass on September 15th to see Eternal MMA alumni Jack Della fight for a UFC contract.

SPOTLIGHT: HILL VS BECKER

It’s a new opponent, but the same goal for Eternal lightweight champion Dan Hill (5-0).

Due to COVID-19 interstate travel restrictions, Hill will now defend his Eternal MMA lightweight title against Jack Becker (8-2) at Eternal MMA 61.

Originally scheduled to fight veteran lightweight Brentin Mumford, Hill will test his skills against another of Australia’s top lightweights when he steps in the cage with the internationally recognised Becker.

Jack Becker brings a wealth of experience into this title fight.

It’s a huge opportunity for Becker who told Eternal MMA,

“I believe I’m the toughest test of his career so far. He’s been tested before by Josh Togo who’s solid but not as solid everywhere as I am.”

On how he sees the fight playing out, Becker expects to finish the undefeated champion.

“I think the fight’s going to be a mixture of everything: grappling, striking. I don’t think it needs to stay anywhere for anyone but I do think there’ll be a finish.”

Not one to shy away from a challenge, Hill accepted the late replacement without hesitation, telling Eternal MMA,

“I accepted the fight straight away. I told them I’d fight anyone.”

The challenge of fighting Becker also excites Hill.

“I think this is a better fight for me. I think it’s a fight that will progress my career a lot more than the fight with Brentin  [Mumford] would and it’s something that makes me a lot more excited to get up and train for.”

Dan Hill is happy to take on all challengers in the Eternal Lightweight division.

It’s a huge blow for Mumford whose opportunity will have to wait for now, but promoter Cam O’Neill is hopeful about rescheduling a fight as soon as possible.

“Eternal MMA is committed to ensuring that our athletes get every opportunity to perform as we continue to adapt to the constantly challenging travel restrictions in Australia.”

“Unfortunately for Brentin, these restrictions have ruled him out of this fight but he will get the chance to challenge the winner for the title later this year.”

When asked about the replacement, O’Neill couldn’t be happier.

“We were lucky to be able to secure such an exciting replacement that is definitely worthy of the challenge.

“The Eternal lightweight division is the most exciting division in Australia and Dan Hill sits at the very top. His opponent, Jack Becker, comes into this fight hungry with a huge pedigree and is coming off an exciting win himself. What an exciting fight.”

Buy tickets to Eternal MMA 61 at Southport Sharks RSL club on September 11th (5pm start) OR stream the main card live on UFC Fight Pass.

SPOTLIGHT: Dimps VS Martinez

It’ll be grappler versus striker when former Eternal lightweight champion David Martinez (6-3) meets Dimps Gillies (4-3) at Eternal MMA 61. 

Both men will be looking to get back into the lightweight title picture and Eternal MMA co-promoter, Cam O’Neill, believes a victory would do just that.

“The Eternal lightweight division is on fire. It’s the best division in Australia right now and this fight features two of the very top lightweights with very contrasting styles. 

“One thing’s for sure: this fight is going to be fun, and the winner will most likely move forward to fight for that number one contender spot in their next fight.” said O’Neill. 

With both fighters desperately chasing a victory, this has the potential to be fight of the night. The key to victory for each fighter will be to impose their skillset by keeping the fight in their domain.

As an accomplished striker, the key to victory for Gillies will be to keep the fight standing. Throughout his career, Gillies has shown the ability to make any fight a dog fight by coming forward and throwing strikes indiscriminately. 

Dimps Gillies not shy to throw down in the middle of the arena.

Former Eternal MMA lightweight champion Martinez will hope to get back into the win column using his patented wrestling skills. Martinez’s wrestling has laid the foundations for the victories in his career thus far, and he’ll hope to mitigate Gillies advantages on the feet by keeping him on the ground. 

Eternal MMA co-promoter Ben Vickers expects the fight to be fireworks. 

Former Eternal champion, David “The Smiling Assassin” Martinez eager to put himself back into title contention.

“This is the archetypal grappler versus striker matchup. Dimps is one of the most complete strikers in Australian MMA and David is one of the premiere grapplers. 

“It’s one of those fights where each man has a clear route to victory, so the excitement is who can impose their game. I love these old school MMA fights; I can’t wait for this scrap!” said Vickers. 

Eternal 2020-2021 Financial Year Review

    With Australia’s COVID-19 situation under tight policies and travel control, Eternal MMA proves that it is Australia’s number one MMA organisation by delivering eight events to live audiences in the 2020-2021 Financial Year.

    Eternal director Cam O’Neill says, “It’s very exciting to see the growth that Eternal MMA has made as a company in the last financial year, a year that saw a pandemic decimate sports leagues worldwide. Eternal again delivered eight nationwide shows to live audiences as well provided opportunities in a difficult time for athletes.”

    The last twelve months were unprecedented for the company with challenges to overcome, but with these challenges, Eternal has gone from strength to strength. With eight events over three major cities, fight fans in Perth, Melbourne and Gold Coast (Brisbane) were able to attend and watch live the best Australia MMA fights to date.

    “We are still in uncertain times with travel and attendance at events uncertain as Australia slips back into a series of lockdowns and increased travel restrictions. The company will continue to deliver, as we’re constantly working to react, adapt and overcome” stated Cam.

    Along with record attending audiences nationwide, new records were set from financial payouts to the athletes, numbers on worldwide audiences viewership and a numerous athletes on the Eternal roster making it to the international fight scene.

    “One of our goals when establishing Eternal MMA was to build Oceania’s number one MMA promotion and provide a pathway to the world’s number one organisation, the UFC. It’s been satisfying to sit here, nine years later after setting these goals to see more athletes that have plied their trade and carried out their apprenticeship on Eternal graduate to UFC and debut in the last financial year.” – Cam O’Neill, Eternal MMA Director

    “It has been a great year for the Eternal team; actions speak louder than words. These numbers to me are a testament to the work we put in, raising the bar for Australian MMA. Personally all I’m concerned about is rolling my sleeves up, getting back in the trenches and making these numbers look silly in twelve months time. None of this is possible without the support of fighters, coaches, family, fans and the Eternal team. I cant wait to put on some amazing fights for our fans in the 21/22 FY.” – Ben Vickers, Eternal MMA Director

    With that goal checked, Eternal MMA also set a new one for the books with “King” Casey O’Neill (2-0 UFC) being the first fighter to go through the pathway from debuting as an amateur on Eternal, progress through to as a professional and win an Eternal MMA championship title and now begin the journey to define her legacy on the world’s biggest stage.

    LIVE Eternal, REIGN Supreme.

    Practice Makes Perfect – Eternal Referee Course

    There’s a saying – “You know what happens when you assume? It makes an ass out of u and me.”

    I have historically been very guilty of assuming everyone knows what I expect. They don’t! And it’s wrong of me to think they do. I am making strides to lay out my expectations early and it definitely helps in achieving results. 

    What the whole Australian MMA scene is guilty of assuming is that officials should be good at their job. If they aren’t receiving the appropriate training, how can we expect them to be high level? If a fighter didn’t train we wouldn’t expect a high level performance from them, would we?

    Eternal puts on roughly 60 pro fights a year nationally. The rest of the events cover maybe another 20. So, for argument’s sake, let’s say 80 fights a year. Maybe 20 in Perth, 30 on the Gold Coast, and 30 elsewhere. Each referee is getting maybe 6 or 7 fights a year domestically, often separated by months at a time. There is no consistency for the officials. They work in a high pressure environment and have to make split second decisions with huge repercussions. The best they can hope for is to go home without anyone slating them. Thankless task.

    Perth’s Matt Wynne, officiating the Eternal 60 Main Event.

    A few years ago Eternal, in conjunction with the Western Australian Combat Sports Commission, sponsored an Officials Development Day with Peter Hickmott. Peter is an experienced UFC referee and is widely regarded among the cream of the crop of Australian officiating.

    This was repeated this year at the amazing UFC Gym in Balcatta. 20+ Perth officials and commission members attended a 3hr practical training seminar with one of the most experienced referees in the game – UFC referee John Sharp. ‘Sharpy’ was able to practically assess and debrief all attending officials at Eternal 60 that night.

    UFC referee John Sharp, discussing the ruleset with the WA Sporting Commission.

    We are committed to developing all those who work for us in order to ensure the fighters get the right decisions made on the night so as not to ruin their moment. At the end of the day that’s what we do it for. To allow the fighters to turn up and fight their hearts out without worrying about poor stoppages or bad calls. It will never be perfect, the job is too hard, but we have to help make it as near to perfect as possible.

    Referee course underway with live drills.

    Eternal will be bringing the course back to Perth in October and we will run courses on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne this year also. We are determined to make this sport as professional and exciting, but most importantly as safe as possible. 

    Thanks must be extended to The WA Combat Sports Commission, John Sharp and a massive thanks to Matt Wynne for organising.

    On The Road Again

    It was with an enormous amount of excitement that I jumped out of my bed at 5am on Wednesday 17th of March. I can assure you that it’s not often I am excited to wake up at 5am! The first ever ‘Eternal Fight Weekend’ was the cause of that excitement. An ambitious and ballsy move from the Eternal Team to put on two shows over two nights in the same venue, where four championship belts would be retained or rehomed. I can tell you sitting here post the event, we pulled it off!

    Even travelling felt weird, living in WA every trip is a marathon, COVID had put a stop to my frequent travelling (I’d been on one plane trip since we kicked off 2020 with the three shows in three weeks). I definitely think travelling is like training, you get better at it the more you do it. Add to the usual discomfort of being sandwiched between two, usually oversized, FIFO workers the good old facemask and the hitleresque air stewardess shouting at you if it isn’t covering pretty much all your face and the fact that due to budget constraints the entertainment has been switched off, it makes for a torturous five hours. I’ve always been a terrible sleeper and struggle to sleep in my comfortable bed, so sleep is out of the question but I was excited and the trip passed really quickly.

    Arriving at the beautiful Mantra at Sharks Hotel is always nice, I have stayed there so many times now I know all the staff and am made to feel super welcome. Up to the room, quick shower, dump bags and first meeting with Cam in the books it’s a restless night’s sleep and up for weigh-ins for Eternal 57. As seems to be the case this year we had a late pullout, this time in the bantamweight tournament. To add insult to ‘injury’ our replacement missed weight by nearly three kilos and the tournament was off and poor Shaun Etchell was without a fight but as small consolation would get first crack at the winner of Meech vs Hibberd which would now be for the belt. All other fighters made weight at the first time of asking and we had ourselves a show! The rest of the day was spent checking in teams for Saturday and prepping the venue for Friday night. Two shows in two nights seems full on, but add to that all the associated work that goes with it and you have two very stressed promoters running around like blue arsed flies. 

    • Patrons filling out two nights for MMA action.
    • Australian MMA history in the making.

    Friday morning and we were up with the sparrows to supervise the cage going in then back to Southport Sharks for Saturday’s weigh ins’. Don’t worry, I’m also confused and I was there. Saturday weigh-ins ran much smoother than Friday’s with all fighters making weight at the first time of asking. Friday’s card was strong but Saturday’s card was the best I’ve ever seen in domestic MMA in my 10 years down under. Post weigh-ins we headed back to Carrara Indoor Stadium to get things underway. I won’t go into the fights but you can catch them here but i will say the standard across the board from Fight 1 to Fight 8 was exceptional. Special mention must go to the Absolute MMA team with Sam Hibberd winning the bantamweight strap in spectacular fashion and Jack Jenkins with his first defence of his featherweight title, making short work of Jesse Medina in the much anticipated rematch. First night in the books and what a night, the atmosphere was through the roof and there were less than half the expected crowd for Saturday in attendance, which meant Saturday night would be wild. No time to celebrate, bed and an early rise for the crescendo.

    • Jack Jenkins sticks to his gameplan.
    • #AndNew – Sam Hibberd is the new Eternal Bantamweight Champion.
    • #AndStill Jack Jenkins successfully defends his title.

    I must just say that the Eternal 58 event was the finest fight card, on paper, we had ever put together. Every fight had the potential to blow the roof off the venue. Add to that close to 2000 fans and the stage was set for fireworks. Every single fight was above and beyond expectation and the bar was set high in Bout 1 and continued to rise all the way to what was one of the most intense main events we have ever witnessed. John Fraser stepped up to the biggest challenge of his career and took everything the vicious Kitt Campbell threw at him, weathered the early storm and paid Kitt back in spades in the late rounds to get his hands on the middleweight title recently vacated by now UFC fighter Isi Fitikefu. Fraser will be a hard man to dethrone and I look forward to his first defence. Congratulations must also go to Dan Hill with a come from behind fourth round submission of the hugely talented Josh Togo. Hill taking the lightweight strap from the Australian Top Team man. 

    Eternal 58 was phenomenal and all fighters and coaches should be remarkably proud of their fighters. The standard in Australian MMA right now is outstanding. Now there will be some people reading this saying “But what about the slippy canvas?” and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the heroes on the internet with their opinions on what we should do and how we should have had a different material and all the other brain busting ideas. For those people let me tell you this, if you were upset, frustrated or pissed off by the canvas multiply your emotions by a million and you may get somewhere close to how Cam and I felt about it. We have used that canvas for 2 years and 8 shows and never had an issue, we also poured our heart, soul and money into this landmark weekend only to have to nearly call it off. Here at Eternal we are good, the best in the business but we can’t control the weather. The humidity was through the roof and it made the canvas like an ice rink. Credit to the fighters who changed game plans and pushed through those terrible conditions. Mumford and Dimps put on one of the finest scraps I’ve ever seen and they had the worst of it so props to those two beasts. Mumford will get the next shot at Dan Hill’s strap.

    • Pressure gameplan earns Dan Hill the elusive lightweight title.
    • John Fraser picks apart Kitt Campbell.
    • A new middleweight king crowned.

    I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t so excited about the length of the trip home but knowing i’ll see the wife and kids helps with the monotony of it all. Also, being exhausted helps with the plane sleeping situation. In summary Eternal put on the biggest weekend of MMA that has ever been seen at a domestic level in Australia (outside of the UFC and even then I’d say it was close) and we put over $60,000 into the pockets of the fighters. This is what makes me proudest about the whole thing. I have always said Eternal is a show for the fighters run by fighters (Albeit many moons ago for Cam and I to have laced the gloves up in anger) and we feel very strongly about giving back to the sport we love so dearly. I need a rest but I can’t wait to do it all again, which won’t be a long wait as we go again in Melbourne, May 7th.