The welterweight division remains without a champion! Blachowicz and Ankalaev drew. UFC 282 also offered the steal of the year, check out all the finishes

It was supposed to be Jiri Prochazka’s night, but due to an injury, not only was he absent from UFC 282, but so was his challenger Glover Teixeira. Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev fought for the welterweight title. However, the Las Vegas tournament also offered other interesting fights. How did the gala go?

Early Prelims

UFC 282 didn’t end up looking as attractive as it originally looked, judging by the names. In fact, several fighters or fights were missing, especially the defense of Jiri Prochazka disappointed everyone, including the organization. But the first two cards proved that it was a mistake to judge the gala prematurely.

In fact, there were seven matches on Early Prelims and Prelims and none of them ended on points. The very first one ended in a knockout with less than a minute left in the third round when Cameron Saaiman scored a successful debut against Steven Koslow.

In the next bout, we saw an awesome submission. This one was scored with a minute and a quarter left in the match by TJ Brown, who tightened the arm triangle on Erik Silva. For Brown, this is his third win in his sixth fight in the UFC, and it was more than important in terms of his continuation in the organization.

A string of four (technical) knockouts followed. Billy Quarantillo, who was facing Alexander Hernandez, would again look to start a winning streak. Hernandez has been alternating wins and losses in the UFC and by losing now, he continues that record.

Quarantillo improved his record to a solid 17-4. He scored his fifth win in his seventh fight under the UFC banner. He forced the referee to save Hernandez by stoppage at the end of the second round.

Prelims

The prelims card opened with a battle of two middleweights and given their records, it was somewhat expected that the fight wouldn’t end on points. Chris Curtis now has an impressive 17 KO/TKO record, while Joaquin Buckley picked up his sixth career loss.

Buckley now has two losses in a row, the first time he’s been in this situation in his career. Curtis, on the other hand, made amends after his loss to Jack Hermansson.

Edmen Shahbazyan won a very important fight. He started his UFC career perfectly, winning his first three fights, only to be followed by a series of three losses, the first of his career.

His opponent Dalcha Lungiambula, who hasn’t had much success since coming to the UFC, also had three losses in a row. He notched his fifth loss in his seventh fight. One was also dealt to him by Magomed Ankalaev, one of the main characters of the tournament in 2019.

Jairzinho Rozenstruik is also back on a winning streak. He has lost his last two fights, most recently being knocked out by Alexander Volkov. However, Chris Daukaus also wanted to fight for the green box at Sherdog, but he will have to wait.

Rozenstruik flew into the heavyweight bout revved up like a tank and after only 23 seconds he could celebrate the win. Daukaus, on the other hand, lost for the third time in a row.

The prelims card then concluded with the youngest ever fighter in the UFC. Only 18 years old, Raul Rosas Jr was telling his opponent that he would make a better Santa Claus than he is a fighter, and he was going to prove it in the fight.

The college of MMA wanted to show him Jay Perrin, who went into the fight on a two-fight losing streak at 29. And the talented Rosas dealt him a third when he was able to pin him for a submission in the first round.

The main card

The main card opened with a duel between two big featherweight prospects and two men without a loss. Bryce Mitchell was the slight favourite, the 28-year-old American went into the fight with a 15-0 record, with seven wins in the UFC. Most recently, he defeated the legendary Edson Barboza to claim the title.

But his unbeaten run was ended by the three years younger Ilia Topuria. The Spanish fighter with Georgian roots was much tougher and more accurate in his stance, quite unexpectedly forcing Mitchell to tap out to an arm triangle.

Mitchell, meanwhile, has finished nine fights on the submission. This leaves Topuria asking for a huge spotlight and potentially a title shot for next year. He improved his record to 12-0.

The UFC’s Liverpool Colony representative Darren Till had another important fight ahead of him. The man who has beaten the likes of Bojan Velickovic, Donald Cerrone and Stephen Thompson had lost four of his last five fights and now faced the upstart Dricus Du Plessis in his path.

Du Plessis was on a roll. He’s relatively new to the UFC, having only had three fights, but he’s beaten the likes of Robert Soldich and Joilton Lutterbach in the past. And now he showed his quality against Till.

He absolutely destroyed the Englishman in the first round, supplying him with hard punches on the canvas with incredible frequency. In the second round, however, he was out of breath and therefore it looked like every punch Till threw could end in a knockout of Du Plessis. He didn’t let up, however, and in the third round he tightened his opponent up for a rear-naked choke.

Santiago Ponzinibbio and Robbie Lawler were supposed to face each other in a battle of legends, but the latter had to withdraw and was replaced by a revved up Alex Morono. It was an unpleasant change for the highly experienced Argentinian and it showed. In the first two rounds Morono was able to get him into trouble.

Moreover, Ponzinibbio didn’t want to rely on the scoring judges. After a sleepy first round, he made up for it all by starting the third, where he was able to get Morono in trouble with some great combinations and then finish him.

After two losses, the Argentine finally notched a win and adjusted his record to a nice 29-6. Morono, on the other hand, lost his winning streak and after four victories has to swallow his eighth career loss.

Pimblett won on points. Steal of the year?

Paddy Pimblett is one of the UFC’s big favourites, he has the potential to achieve great stardom and it is obvious that the American organisation wants to build on him in the future. That’s also why he hasn’t come up against quite top opponents so far.

Now, however, he could come across it, as he faces the up-and-coming and experienced Jared Gordon, who has won four of his last five fights. Gordon is known as a great wrestler, which he proved in this fight.

However, in the first two rounds he showed Pimblett that he is also very skilled in the stand-up. He was more accurate, harder. In the third round, he controlled the Englishman on the canvas.

Overall, Gordon had more significant strikes, delivered three takedowns. However, to the eye, at times he seemed to be the one getting into more trouble after his opponent’s punches. Not that he was in a situation where he was naked, though.

Then when the fight was over, it was expected that Gordon was more likely to win. Surprisingly, that was not the case. Pimblett picked up his fourth win in the UFC and it was unanimous with all the judges. The talk on social media immediately began to talk about the steal of the year. And so did his fans.

The UFC apparently realized the controversy of the decision and immediately released the scorecards of how the judges scored the fight.

The welterweight division remains without a champion!

As mentioned, Jiri Prochazka was scheduled to defend his belt in a rematch against Glover Teixeira at UFC 282. However, due to an injury, the bout fell through and Teixeira also did not appear at the tournament. The Moravian fighter relinquished the title and the two men who challenged Prochazka fought for it.

Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev are undoubtedly two of the top welterweights, and they were certainly all the happier to get this opportunity. Ankalaev went into the fight as a slight favorite, but Blachowicz already held the title and had been through big fights, so he couldn’t be underestimated.

The first round was rather cautious from both sides. A few hard punches were landed, but it was clear that both fighters were aware of the quality of their opponent. The second round was also rather strategic, but Blachowicz began to write an unpleasant story for Ankalaev’s legs.

In fact, the Polish fighter landed a great kick and Ankalaev had both legs buckled in the second five minutes. So it was clear what to focus on. So the Dagestani immediately began to press and attempted to wrestle. Five rounds with his legs kicked in is simply a problem.

Blachowicz continued his great plan in the third round. But he had to be careful. Ankalaev tried to put knockout power into almost every combination. He then delivered the first takedown at the end of the third round, but only managed to get it on the seventh attempt, and only for a few seconds. Otherwise, the former champion had the upper hand.

The first championship round was then clearly dominated by Ankalaev. He was able to assert his great wrestling, took Blachowicz down after two minutes and the Polish fighter from the back was more or less unable to resist. Fortunately for him, however, he didn’t score too many takedowns.

The fifth round went about as badly as it could from Blachowicz’s perspective. He lost his balance in the very first seconds, got himself on the ground and Ankalaev didn’t allow him to stand up anymore. On the contrary, he dismantled him and won the fight in his favour.

Both fighters went into the announcement uncertain, Blachowicz rather resigned, Ankalaev a little more confident. There was a surprising verdict when we saw a split draw, with one judge seeing the Polish fighter win, one seeing the Dagestani win and a third seeing a draw.

So the welterweight division is still without a champion.

Source: UFC, Twitter