Ultimate Fighting Championship 2022 Round Up

The UFC is the leading MMA promotion in the world with 1410 active fighters as of July 30th, 2022, and with fights being sanctioned in cities like Abu Dhabi, Singapore and of course Las Vegas. The organization is run by UFC president Dana White, who has been in charge for twenty-one years. This year in UFC has been an exciting one with potentially the best Light Heavyweight fight in the UFC, the first-ever UFC event in France, and the return to fan attendance in non-pay-per view (ppv) events. 

January

The year started with the first event being on January fifteenth, with the main event being a featherweight bout (145 lbs) between Calvin Kattar and GIga Chikadze where Kattar outclasses Chikadze for the decision win. A week later the first PPV event happened in Anaheim with Andre Fialho’s first UFC bout; he would go on to fight four more times in the year. This event also had two title fights with the men’s flyweight (125 lbs) champion Brandon Moreno losing to former men’s flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo in a very close trilogy match. 

The main event of the evening was the heavyweight (265) champion, Francis Ngannou, who is one of the three champions born in Africa, fighting his former training partner and undefeated challenger Ciryl Gane, whom Ngannou would barely beat to keep the belt. Ngannou also went into the fight with a torn MCL and damaged ACL.  

February

February started off with a lackluster event on February fifth. The next week would turn out to be a banger of an event in Houston with a Middleweight bout (185 lbs) between Jared Cannonier and Derek Brunson with a promise that the winner gets a title shot next. Jared would get a round two KO and would face the winner of the main event that night, Israel Adesanya, another one of the three African champions, and Robert Whittaker, but before that the co-main event. The co-main event was between the Knockout King, Derrick Lewis and Tai Tuivasa, who’s made a name for himself with his last two fights ending in a knockout and him drinking beer out of a shoe. The fight would start with a bang and in the second round, Tuivasa would pick up a knockout win.

The main event of the evening was a rematch of a fight that happened in October of 2019. The fight would be very close and end in a decision win for Adesanya. The next event a week after would be a lackluster one, with the main event being scrapped because of complications on a lightweight named Rafael Fiziev’s side. 

March

The next PPV event would happen two weeks later in Las Vegas between two friends turned bitter rivals, Colby Covington vs Jorge Masvidal, which would turn out to be a decision win for Covington, but this would not be the end of their feud. On March twenty-first, Masvidal attacked Covington near a restaurant in Miami, giving Covington a fractured tooth, abrasion on his wrist, and damage to his rolex. Masvidal is being put on trial for this attack, which he pleads not guilty for, and will have the trial in December.

Later that March, the UFC would make their return to London on March nineteenth, that could be the card of the year. This card would also be the first non-PPV card that was not at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas since the pandemic hit. This card would have twelve fights with nine of them being KOs or Submissions. Many British and Scottish rising stars were featured on this card, like Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett, Molly Mcann and Tom Aspinall, who would all win their fights. 

Many UFC fans would have UFC London as their card of the year, including UFC fan Rowan King, because one of the fights was really good and the crowd’s energy added a lot to the card. The week after, the UFC would return to the US in Columbus for another great event to end a crazy March off. 

April

The UFC will have a PPV after a week’s break from UFC Columbus with featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski facing off against the veteran challenger, Chan Sung Jung, also known as The Korean Zombie. Before that, though, a potential fight of the year happened between welterweights (170) Gilbert Burns and rising star Khamzat Chimaev, who prior to the fight only absorbed four strikes in his four UFC fights. This fight had great striking and great grappling for a close decision win for Chimaev. 

Then the co-main event was a rematch of a bantamweight bout (135) between champion Aljamain Sterling and Interim Champion, Petr Yan. The first fight happened in March of 2021 with Yan dominating Sterling for four rounds and knocking him out with an illegal knee, which gave Sterling the win. 

The rematch between Sterling and Yan was very close and Sterling got the decision to win, which Dana White did not agree with. Now the main event featured Volkanovski dominating The Korean Zombie for 4 rounds and picking up the knockout win.

May

After a few more weeks, the next PPV event happened in Phoenix, Arizona for 274, which featured two title fights and the return of fan favorite “El Cucuy” Tony Ferguson. Ferguson was winning the first round of his fight vs Micheal Chandler, but then in round two Chandler threw a front kick that knocked Ferguson out. The next fight was arguably one of the worst fights in history, being a strawweight bout between champion Rose Namajunas and former champion Carla Esparza.

This fight would drag for all five rounds with only 135 strikes landed and only three takedowns being completed for a split decision victory for Esparza. This fight caused many of the UFC’s fanbase to hate both Esparza and Namajunas, especially when Namajunas and one of her coaches, who’s also her husband, said on The MMA Hour that she was following their gameplan. 

The main event was a lightweight bout between champion Charles Oliveira, who would lose his belt right before the fight because he weighed in over the 155 pound weight limit, and even with a win, he cannot gain it back in this fight. His opponent is from the Phoenix region, Justin Gaethje, who has fought for the belt before, but lost in the second round. 

This fight started off hot with both fighters exchanging strikes and Gathje knocked Oliveira down, which would normally prompt a fighter to go and land ground and pound strikes and/or wrestle with their opponent. Gathje did not do this because Oliveria’s Jiu-Jitsu and submission game is one of the best in the UFC, and Gathje’s submission defense is not good. Oliveira got up and eventually knocked Gathje out in the first round.

 Also in May, the UFC’s reality TV show, called The Ultimate Fighter or TUF, released their thirty-first season where the UFC takes eight fighters from two different divisions. The eight fighters will have a tournament and whoever comes out on top gets money and a spot in the UFC. The show was released weekly and ended July nineteenth. Along with the sixteen fighters selected, the two fighters in a title fight select and coach these fighters. We’ll come back to this topic later in July. 

June

The next PPV was a contender for fight of the year and card of the year with two title fights on the main card, UFC 275. This was also the UFC’s fourth event located in Singapore. But before the fight was over was a strawweight rematch of the 2020 fight of the year between two former champions, Zhang Weili and Joanna Jędrzejczyk. This fight was also the return of Joanna, but she would be knocked out by Weili via a spinning back elbow. 

The first title fight of 275 was a women’s flyweight fight between champion Valentina Shevchenko and Taila Santos. Going into the fight, Shevchenko was one of the most dominant champions at the time, so she was expected to dominate Santos, but instead it was a very competitive five-round fight, where many people thought Santos won, but the judges gave it to Shevchenko. 

The main event of the evening was a light heavyweight bout between champion Glover Teixeira and Jiri Procházka. This fight could be fight of the year based on the high level of striking and grappling and the fact there was never a dull moment during this fight. In the end, the samurai striker, Procházka submitted the jiu-jitsu blackbelt with twenty-eight seconds left in the fight. Many UFC fans thought that this was fight of the year including UFC fan Johann Opgenhaffen who said this was his fight of the year because of the nonstop action and it was super competitive. 

The next week’s card was a card in Austin, Texas, with the main event being between featherweights Calvin Kattar and Josh Emmett. This fight was also very good, with high level striking being performed by both sides. It was a very close fight and the judges gave the fight to Emmett, which many fans did not agree with. This includes Kattar fan Rowan King, who said “It was a highway robbery and those judges should’ve been fired on the spot” when asked how he felt about the decision.

July

The first week of July is international fight week and also UFC 276 with the number three and two pound-for-pound best fighters right now being featured on this card, featherweight Alexander Volkanovksi with his rival Max Holloway meeting for the third time, and middleweight Israel Adesanya vs Jared Cannonier. Before those two fights though, a middleweight fight between Sean Strickland and Alex Pereira. Pereira used to be a kickboxer who fought Adesanya twice and won both times, being the only person to knock him out ever. The fight would end in the first round, with Pereira knocking Strickland out with a left hook, setting himself up for a title fight. 

Next was the trilogy fight between Volkanovksi and Holloway, in which Volkanovski won the first two fights. This was expected to be a very close fight, but Volkanovski just outclassed Holloway for all five rounds, not letting Holloway do anything he wanted to do. The main event now being between Adesanya and Cannonier, where Adesanya kept himself out of Cannonier’s range winning in a dominant decision win. 

Towards the end of July, the UFC went back to London to have another card main evented by heavyweight Tom Aspinall, but before that a lightweight bout with Paddy Pimblett. Pimblett would win his fight via a round two submission and proceeded to give a speech after his fight about men’s mental health awareness. The main event was lackluster, with home favorite Aspinall, injuring his leg in the first seconds of the fight.

The next week being the week of 277, which had the main event being the two TUF coaches, Juliana Peña and Amanda Nunes, who lost to Peña in a huge upset in December of last year, fight for the women’s bantamweight title. Before that though a men’s flyweight bout for the interim title fight between Brandon Moreno and Kai-Kara France. The first two rounds between the two were very close, but in the third round France dropped Moreno, but this didn’t stop Moreno as he knocked France out with a body kick later in the round. Moreno fan Johann Opgenhaffen said he went from “Rather Upset” when Moreno was dropped to “very happy and surprised” when Moreno got the knockout. This result sets up the first quadrilogy fight in the UFC’s history between Devices Figeuiredo and Moreno. 

The main event between Peña and Nunes was not a close one with Nunes wanting to get revenge for Peña submitting her in December. Nunes would not let up in all 5 rounds, outclassing Peña and making her the double champion once again. Next week’s fights were also the finale of the TUF tournament, starting with women flyweights, Brogan Walker, and Juliana Miller. Miller would knock Brogan out in the third round. Next, the heavyweight TUF champion was the brother of the pound-for-pound best fighters at the time, Mohammad Usman and Zac Pauga. This fight would end early in the second round with Usman knocking Puaga out. 

August

On August 13th the UFC went to San Deigo with the main event being a bantamweight bout between up and coming star Marlon Vera and veteran Dominick Cruz, but before that was a heated featherweight bout between Nate Landwher and David Onama. Landwehr vs Onama went back and forth with both fighters throwing fight ending shot from the very start. In the end Landwehr would survive and win via decision. The main event would end in the fourth round with Vera knocking Cruz out with a head kick.

The next PPV being 278 was on August 20th, with the main event being the return of Kamaru Usman fighting Leon Edwards, which is a rematch of Usman’s first UFC fight which Usman won against Edwards. Before that, legendary featherweight, who’s fighting at bantamweight as he grows old. Jose Aldo fighting Merab Dvalishvili. Dvalishvili would pressure Aldo throughout the whole fight getting the decision win, and also decided to retire after the fight. 

The co-main event of 278 was a middleweight bout between Paulo Costa and veteran Luke Rockhold. This fight was not technical at all, it was two men getting in the octagon and trying to finish the other. With that being said, just because of how competitive and fun this fight was, it is a contender for fight of the year. In the end ,Costa won by a decision and Rockhold retired after the fight. 

Now the main event was another of the three African Champions, welterweight Usman vs Edwards. Another fact about this event is that it was in Salt Lake City, which has a higher elevation than all of the other venues this year, so Usman, who has amazing cardio, had the automatic upper hand. Throughout the first four rounds of the fight Usman wrestled Edwards showing dominance on the ground, but during the break between round 4 and 5, Edwards corner had one of the best speeches of all time in the UFC, and with one minute left Edwards knocked Usman out with a head kick. 

September

The next fight would be two weeks later and the first UFC card ever in Paris, with the main event being a heavyweight fight between Paris’ own Ciryl Gane and Tai Tuivasa. This fight was Gane picking apart Tuivasa for three rounds, but Tuivasa was able to become the first man to knock Gan down. It doesn’t matter though, because in the end Gane got the knockout. Next week’s fight was supposed to be a welterweight fight with UFC veteran, Nate Diaz vs Khamzat Chimaev as the main event, a welterweight fight with Tony Ferguson and Li Jingliang, and a welterweight fight between Kevin Holland and Daniel Rodriguez, but because of Khamzat missing weight by seven and a half pounds, the fights were moved around.

Instead, we got a catchweight bout between Jingliang and Rodriguez which was a very close and competitive fight, but the judges would end up giving it to Rodriguez. Next was Chimaev vs Holland at a catchweight as well, which would end very fast with Chimaev taking Holland down immediately and submitting him quickly. Now the main event was a welterweight bout with Diaz and Ferguson. This fight had a lot, good striking, grappling and Diaz and Ferguson joking around the whole time. Eventually Diaz would submit Ferguson and announce his retirement from the UFC, but he may be back one day. Holland would also retire after the day was over, but came out of retirement soon after for a fight on December 3rd against Stephen “Wonderboy ” Thompson in Orlando.

The next card was two weeks later in Las Vegas, with the main event being a bantamweight bout between Cory Sandhagen vs Song Yadong. Before that though, Chidi Njokuani and Gregory Rodrigues faced off at middleweight. In this fight Rodrigues would have a cut so deep in his forehead, but would end up knocking Njokuani out. Now the main event was not very close with Sandhagen picking apart Yadong and knocking him out in the 4th round.

October

After a few more weeks the UFC would go to Abu Dhabi for UFC 280 featuring Charles Oliveira and best friend of one of the next UFC fighters of all time, Islam Makachev. Before that though 2 bantamweight bouts happened first between Petr Yan and Sean O’Malley. This fight would be way closer than many people expected with this being O’Malley’s toughest test yet, but he would be able to pull out the decision win. 

Next up was for the bantamweight title between Aljamain Sterling and former champion, TJ Dillashaw, who was stripped of the belt for using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs), but has returned to fighting last year. This fight would not be close because when Sterling got his first takedown in the first round, Dillashaw’s arm was dislocated so he couldn’t do anything to get up in the first round. During the break between round 1 and 2 he was able to put his arm back into place, but the exact same thing happened in the 2nd round and Sterling got the win.

Now the main event being Oliveria vs Makachev, leading up to the fight, the story was “Which is better, Jiu-Jitsu or Wrestling?” Oliveria would be the representative for jiu-jitsu with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Makachev would represent wrestling with his Sambo. Wrestling got the win that night as this fight was pretty dominant for Makachev getting the round two KO.

November

The next PPV would be on November twelfth in New York City, with the main event being between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira, their third time fighting each other, first time in the UFC and MMA. Before that, a lightweight fight between Dustin Poirier and Micheal Chandler. This fight would be very competitive and very bloody with Poirier getting the round three submission. 

The next fight would be a strawweight bout between Calra Esparza and Zhang Weili for the title. Almost everyone was rooting for Weili in this fight because Esparza’s last time out was considered one of the worst fights in history. Weili was able to get the early round two submission to the delight of many fans that saw it live. 

Now the main event being Adesanyan vs Pereira is very back and forth with Adesanya taking the last round in the last seconds, but Pereira was able to win the second round. In the third round, Adesanya, who never took anyone down, took Pereira down and kept him down there for the entire round and Pereira was going to the fifth round losing. But he pulled out all of the stops and knocked out Adesanya. Adesanya fan Max Liay Von Boadman said that he went from “Very confident going into the fifth round” to “Sudden disappointment” when Adesanya was knocked out, but when asked how confident Adesanya would win a rematch he said “Very confident , he most likely got the reality check he needed”. 

December

After a few weeks it was December third and time for UFC Orlando which featured fourteen fights with eight finishes including Sergehi Pavlocivh knocking Tai Tuviasa out in the first minute, middleweight Roman Dolidze pulling out a crazy wrestling move for a submission win and the main event with Stephern “Wonderboy” Thompson and Kevin Holland which Holland broke his hand early in the fight and he didn’t want to take Wonderboy down where he had an advantage in. This all caused Holland and his corner to throw in the towel before the fifth round giving Wonderboy the win. 

Next was the last PPV of the 2022 year that had 10 straight finishes including 18 year old Raul Roses Jr, who turned 18 on October 8th. The co main and main events were very controversial with star Paddy Pimblett winning through decision for the co main event, which many fans were angry with the decision because they thought his opponent, Jared Gordon, dominated the whole fight. 

Then the main event was for the light heavyweight championship that was between former champion Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev which was a very close fight that all 3 judges scored differently. One had it for Blachowicz, one had it for Ankalaev and the last judge had it as a draw. This also riled up the fans and many fans are calling for these judges to be punishes