It was supposed to be Jiří Procházka’s night, but due to injury, not only he, but also his challenger Glover Teixeira was absent from the UFC 282 tournament. Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev fought for the light heavyweight title. However, the Las Vegas tournament offered other interesting matches as well. How was the whole gala evening?
First Preliminaries
UFC 282 didn’t look as appealing as it originally seemed, according to the names. Several fighters or games were missing, especially Jiří Procházka’s defense froze everyone, including the organization. But the very first two papers proved that it was a mistake to condemn the gala prematurely.
There were seven games between Early Prelims and Prelims and none of them finished in the points. The very first ended in a knockout less than a minute before the end of the third round, when Cameron Saaiman scored a successful debut against Steven Koslow.
In the ensuing fight, we saw a great submission. Here he scored a minute and a quarter before the end of the match TJ Brown, who squeezed the triangle on Erik Silva’s arm. For Brown, this is his third victory in his sixth fight in the UFC, and it was more than important in terms of his continuation in the organization.
A series of four (technical) knockouts followed. Billy Quarantillo would like to restart his winning streak, but Alexander Hernandez is standing in his way. Hernandez has alternated between wins and losses in the UFC and, losing now, continues that record.
Quarantillo thus improved his record to a solid 17-4. In the seventh fight under the UFC banner, he scored his fifth victory. He forced the referee to save Hernandez by stopping at the end of the second round.
Foreplay
The preliminaries card was opened by a fight between two middleweights and, given their balance, it could have been expected that the match would not end on points. Chris Curtis now has an impressive 17 KO/TKO, while Joaquin Buckley suffered his sixth career loss.
Buckley is now on a two-game losing streak for the first time in his career. Conversely, Curtis improved his appetite after losing to Jack Hermansson.
Edmen Shahbazyan then managed a very important duel. He got off to a great start to his UFC tenure, winning his first three fights, but then went on to lose three consecutive fights, the first of his career.
His opponent Dalcha Lungiambula also had three losses in a row, who hasn’t been doing very well since arriving in the UFC. In game seven, he scored his fifth loss. Magomed Ankalaev, one of the protagonists of the tournament, gave him one in 2019.
Jairzinho Rozenstruik is also getting back to winning streak. He has lost his last two fights, the last time he was eliminated by Alexander Volkov. However, Chris Daukaus also wanted to fight for the green field in Sherdog but he has to wait.
Rozenstruik flew into the battle of heavy tonnage like a tank and was able to celebrate victory after only 23 seconds. Daukaus, on the other hand, lost for the third time in a row.
The preliminaries card was then closed by the historically youngest fighter in the UFC. At just 18, Raul Rosas Jr was telling his opponent that he’d be a better Santa than he was a fighter, and he was going to prove it to him in a match.
Jay Perrin, who entered the match at age 29 with two straight losses, wanted to show him college MMA. And the talented Rosas gave him the third when he managed to take it into a submission in the first round.
Main board
The main card was opened by a duel between two featherweight hopefuls and two undefeated men. Bryce Mitchell was a slight favorite, the 28-year-old American entering the fight with a 15-0 record, with seven wins in the UFC. He beat the legendary Edson Barboza one last time and reclaimed the title.
But his invincibility was broken by Ilia Topuria, three years his junior. The Spanish fighter with Georgian roots was much tougher and more accurate in the stance than he was, unexpectedly forcing Mitchell to knock out his arm triangle.
At the same time, Mitchell finished nine games via submission. Topuria thus claims huge attention and potentially a title shot for next year. He adjusted his record to 12-0.
Another important fight was in front of the representative of the Liverpool colony in the UFC, Darren Till. The man who defeated, for example, Bojan Veličković, Donald Cerrone or Stephen Thompson, lost four of his last five matches and now the hot Dricus Du Plessis got in his way.
Du Plessis was on fire. Although he is relatively new to the UFC, having completed “only” three fights, in the past he has defeated, for example, Robert Soldič or Joilton Lutterbach. And now he showed his qualities against Till.
In the first round he completely destroyed the Englishman, delivering hard jabs to the net with incredible frequency. However, he was out of breath in round two and it looked like any punch from Till could end up knocking Du Plessis out. However, he didn’t give up and in the third round he choked his opponent with a rear bare choke.
Santiago Ponzinibbio and Robbie Lawler were due to fight in the Battle of Legends but the latter had to withdraw and was replaced by the hot Alex Morono. It was an uncomfortable change for the Argentine expert and it showed. Morono managed to put him in trouble in the first two rounds.
Furthermore, Ponzinibbio did not want to rely on the top judges. After a sleepier first round, he made it all up with a start in the third, where he was able to trouble Moron with great combinations and then finish.
After two losses, the Argentine finally credited himself with a win and adjusted his record to a beautiful 29-6. Morono, on the other hand, has lost his winning streak and after four victories he has to swallow the eighth defeat of his career.
Pimblett won on points. The theft of the year?
Paddy Pimblett is one of the big favorites in the UFC, he has the potential to achieve great fame and it is evident that the American organization wants to build on him in the future. That’s why he hasn’t run into completely top opponents yet.
But now he could stumble, with the charming and experienced Jared Gordon standing in his way, having won four of his last five games. Gordon is known as a great fighter, which he confirmed in this fight.
However, in the first two rounds, he showed Pimblett that he was very good in position as well. He was more precise, harder. In the third round, he masterfully controlled the Englishman in the net.
Overall, Gordon had more significant hits and made three knockdowns. However, at times it seemed like he was facing bigger problems after hitting his opponent. However, it cannot be said that he would be in such a situation where he would be naked.
So when the game was over, Gordon was more likely to win. But surprisingly that didn’t happen. Pimblett earned his fourth victory in the UFC and also by unanimous decision of all judges. Social networks immediately started talking about the theft of the year. And his fans say so too.
The UFC apparently took note of the controversy over the decision and immediately released the scorecards of how the judges scored the fight.
The light heavyweight division is left without a champion!
As already mentioned, Jiří Procházka was supposed to defend his belt in a rematch against Glover Teixeira at the UFC 282 tournament. However, due to injury, the match was interrupted and Teixeira also did not appear in the tournament. The Moravian fighter relinquished the title and the fight was fought by two men who challenged Procházka.
Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev are undoubtedly among the very top of the light heavyweight division, and surely they had better seize this opportunity in the first place. Ankalaev went into the match as slight favorites, but Blachowicz already held the title and had fought big battles, so he couldn’t be underestimated.
The first round was pretty cautious on both sides. A few hard jabs were thrown but it was clear that both fighters were aware of the quality of their opponent. The second round was also more strategic, but Blachowicz started writing an unpleasant story for Ankalaev’s legs.
The Polish fighter kicked brilliantly and Ankalaev’s legs broke in the second five minutes. So it was clear what to focus on. So the Dagestanis immediately started pushing and trying to fight. Five rounds with legs apart is simply no problem.
Blachowicz continued his grand plan in round three. But he had to be careful. Ankalaev tried to put the knockout power into almost any combination. At the end of the third round, he made the first takedown, but he only managed to do it on the seventh attempt and only for a few seconds. If not, the former champion got the upper hand.
Ankalaev clearly dominated the first round of the championship. He was able to assert his great fight, after two minutes he knocked down Blachowicz and the Polish boxer from behind couldn’t resist more or less. Luckily for him, he didn’t pick up much.
From Blachowicz’s perspective, the fifth round was about as bad as it could be. In the very first seconds he lost his balance, fell to the ground and Ankalayev did not allow him to get up. On the contrary, he took him apart and won the game for him.
Both fighters went to the announcement uncertain, Blachowicz more surrendered, Ankalaev a little more confident. There was a surprising verdict as we got a split draw, with one judge seeing the Polish fighter win, one seeing Dagestan win and the third seeing a draw.
So the light heavyweight division is still without a champion.
Source: UFC, Twitter
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