In the last pay-per-view of 2022, the UFC‘s light heavyweight title is up for grabs on Saturday night after it was vacated by the former champion Jiri Prochazka because of a significant shoulder injury. He was to defend his title on Saturday against the man he took it from, Glover Teixeira. Just over two weeks ago, Prochazka was forced out of that fight and vacated the title. As a result, the light heavyweight co-main event between Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev was made a vacant title fight and took over as the main event.
UFC 282 Results – Main Event
Jan Blachowicz is a former UFC light heavyweight champion as he holds one title defense during his short run from 2020-2021. To get him to UFC gold, he had put together a record of 7-1 in his previous eight fights. In 2017, he snapped a two fight losing streak with four straight victories from 2017-2018. The first of those was a submission win over Devin Clark at UFC Fight Night 118. That was followed by back-to-back unanimous decision wins over Jared Cannonier at UFC on FOX 26 and Jimi Manuwa at UFC Fight Night 127. The fourth straight win came towards the end of 2018 when he submitted Nikita Krylov in the second round of their fight at UFC Fight Night 136. Blachowicz’s four fight win streak was snapped in his next fight when he suffered a TKO loss in round three of his main event fight against Thiago Santos at UFC Fight Night 145.
Following that loss, Blachowicz put together another stretch of impressive wins to earn him his first UFC title shot. In 2019, he picked up a knockout win over former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold at UFC 239. He then went on to defeat Ronaldo Souza by unanimous decision in the main event of UFC Fight Night 164 that same year. His next win was the one to earn him a title shot as he went on to finish Corey Anderson by knockout in the first round of their main event at UFC Fight Night 167. Blachowicz faced Dominick Reyes for the vacant title in 2020 at UFC 253 and came out on top after finishing Reyes by TKO in the second round. After winning the title, Blachowicz successfully defended it one time when he defeated UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya by unanimous decision in a champion vs. champion fight at UFC 259. He attempted to defend his belt a second time when he faced Glover Teixeira at UFC 267 but Teixeira became the champion that night when he submitted Blachowicz in the second round.
Now, coming off a TKO win over Aleksandar Rakic in his most recent fight, Blachowicz looks to become champion once again as he faces a tough opponent in Magomed Ankalaev. During his time spent in the UFC, Ankalaev has lost one time as his record stands at 9-1 in the UFC. He made his debut in 2018 when he was undefeated at 9-0, but that was quickly ruined as he suffered a submission loss to Paul Craig in his debut at UFC Fight Night 127. Since then, he has won nine straight fights beginning with a first round knockout win over Marcin Prachnio at UFC Fight Night 136. That was followed by a unanimous decision over Klidosn Abreu at UFC Fight Night 145. After those two wins, Ankalaev put together three straight KO/TKO victories starting with Dalcha Lungiambula at UFC Fight Night 163. The next two were back-to-back first round finishes of Ion Cutelaba at UFC Fight Night 169 and UFC 254.
In 2021, Ankalaev won two straight unanimous decisions, improving his UFC record to 7-1 with wins over Nikita Krylov at UFC Fight Night 186 and Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 267. Coming into his vacant title fight with Blachowicz, Ankalaev has already won two fights earlier this year with a unanimous decision win over Thiago Santos in his first main event at UFC Vegas 50. His most recent victory was a second round TKO finish over Anthony Smith at UFC 277.
UFC 282 Results – Co-Main Event
In UFC 282’s co-main event, Paddy Pimblett looks to keep his undefeated UFC record alive as he faces off against Jared Gordon. Pimblett made his UFC debut in September 2021 coming off back-to-back finishes in his last two fights with Cage Warriors. He has quickly become 3-0 as he won his debut with a knockout of Luigi Vendramini in the first round at UFC Vegas 36. In his next outing, Pimblett picked up a submission win over Rodrigo Vargas in the first round at UFC Fight Night 204. Pimblett improved his UFC record to 3-0 with another submission win in his most recent outing when he finished Jordan Leavitt in the second round at UFC Fight Night 208. He looks to improve his record in the octagon to 4-0 as he faces what may a tougher opponent in Jared Gordon.
Gordon has been with the UFC since 2017 and has put together a decent record of 7-4. He won back-to-back fights the year he debuted as he finished Michel Quinones by TKO in his debut at UFC Fight Night 112. That was followed by a unanimous decision win over Hacran Dias at UFC Fight Night 119. In 2018, Gordon suffered two straight losses as he was finished by Carlos Diego Ferreira by TKO at UFC Fight Night 126 and Joaquim Silva by knockout at UFC on FOX 31. The following year, Gordon snapped the losing streak with a unanimous decision win over Dan Moret at UFC on ESPN 3 before suffering a knockout loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 164.
After the loss to Oliveira, Gordon put together his first win streak since the year he debuted in the UFC. He won his next three in a row starting with consecutive unanimous decision wins over Chris Fishgold at UFC on ESPN 13 and Danny Chavez at UFC Fight Night 185. The third win was a split decision win over Joe Solecki at UFC Vegas 38. Earlier this year as he enters his fight with Pimblett, Gordon has gone 1-1 suffering a submission loss to Grant Dawson at UFC Vegas 53 before going on to defeat Leonardo Santos at UFC 278 by unanimous decision in his most recent fight.
UFC 282 Results – Main Card
Kicking things off on the main card for UFC 282 is an exciting matchup at featherweight between two undefeated top-fifteen contenders, Bryce Mitchell and Ilia Topuria. With an overall record of 15-0, Mitchell is 5-0 since making his UFC debut off Season 27 of The Ultimate Fighter. Coming into his fight with Topuria, Mitchell’s last three wins have all come by UD as he defeated Charles Rosa, Andre Fili and Edson Barboza. As for Topuria, he comes into the fight with an overall record of 12-0 as four of those wins have come in the UFC. In his last three fights, he finished all three of his opponents by KO, beating Damon Jackson, Ryan Hall and Jai Herbert.
Following that fight will be a middleweight matchup as Darren Till makes his first appearance in the octagon in just over a year as he faces Dricus Du Plessis. Till is coming into this fight searching for a win as he has suffered back-to-back losses in his last two outings against Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson. On the other hand, Du Plessis looks to improve his UFC record to 4-0 as he comes into this one following a unanimous decision win over Brad Tavares at UFC 276.
Finally, before the co-main event, there will be a catchweight fight at 180 pounds between Santiago Ponzinibbio and Alex Morono. Ponzinibbio was originally scheduled to face former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler, however, Lawler was forced out of the fight, forcing Morono to step in as a replacement. Coming into this fight, Ponzinibbio has lost two in a row as he has suffered back-to-back split decision losses to Geoff Neal and Michel Pereira. Meanwhile, Morono will be entering this fight on a four-fight win streak as his last three have all come by way of UD over David Zawada, Mickey Gall and Matthew Semelsberger.
UFC 282 Results
MAIN CARD (PPV/ESPN+ – 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST)
Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev is Deemed a Split Draw (48-47, 46-48, 47-47)
Paddy Pimblett def. Jared Gordon via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Santiago Ponzinibbio def. Alex Morono via TKO (Punches) at 2:29 of Round Three
Dricus Du Plessis def. Darren Till via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:43 of Round Three
Ilia Topuria def. Bryce Mitchell via Submission (Arm Triangle) at 3:10 of Round Two
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN 2/ESPN+ – 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST)
Raul Rosas Jr. def. Jay Perrin via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:44 of Round One
Jairzinho Rozenstruik def. Chris Daukaus via Knockout (Punches) at 0:23 of Round One
Edmen Shahbazyan def. Dalcha Lungiambula via TKO (Punches) at 4:41 of Round Two
Chris Curtis def. Joaquin Buckley via Knockout (Punches) at 2:49 of Round Two
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+ – 6:30 p.m. EST/3:30 p.m. PST)
Billy Quarantillo def. Alexander Hernandez via TKO (Punches) at 4:30 of Round Two
TJ Brown def. Erik Silva via Submission (Arm Triangle) at 3:41 of Round Three
Cameron Saaiman def. Steven Koslow via TKO (Strikes) at 4:13 of Round Three
MAIN IMAGE:
Embed from Getty Images
