It’s been a turbulent year for the UFC. The stalwarts of 2021 have seen their crowns fall from their heads in dramatic fashion and new global heroes have emerged from the shadows.
Trips to Europe have brought together fanbases like never before, with Paris and London hosting roof-raising fight nights, ushering in the first pay-per-view in the British Isles since Michael Bisping’s 2016 showdown with Dan Henderson in Manchester at 5am.
It’s not just Europe either. The Chinese contingent of young stars have impressed this year, with Zhang Weili a shining star atop the tree of talent. Australasia has seen Tai Tuivasa reach star status alongside Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker.
Africa might be a little upset about only seeing Francis Ngannou defend his title once while Kamaru Usman fell to Leon Edwards in one of the shock results of the year. But Dricus Du Plessis, Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Sodiq Yussuf have kept the wins coming throughout the year, and look to have promising futures. South America, meanwhile, can claim a new hero in the man mountain that is Alex Pereira.
The fight game went global in 2022, and despite a few flaws throughout the year in judging and fighters going rogue, it’s been a great 12 months on the whole. These are our picks for the top five fights of the year.
5) Cyril Gane vs Tai Tuivasa, UFC Fight Night 209
This event was legendary before it even began. France had banned MMA back in 2016, comparing the sport to ‘barbaric bar fighting’ but they put their uninformed prejudice behind them as they re-legalised the sport in 2020. The UFC were quick to book out the Accor Arena in Paris, an arena fit to host the rising heavyweight star Cyril Gane, who failed to beat Ngannou in January earlier this year to claim heavyweight gold.
His opponent, the charismatic crowd-pleasing Tai Tuivasa is a heavy hitter with a record of crazy knockouts and crazier celebrations. Gane was known as a capable fighter before the fight, an expert grappler and with a rapid combo of footwork and punches to boot.
What followed was epic. The first round was a glimpse of what was to come, with the final minute seeing Gane find his range and connect some jabs and kicks on Tuivasa, lighting the powder keg for the following rounds.
The second session saw Gane piece up the Australian with ease, with the Frenchman remaining cool and collected, enjoying his moment as he picked his shots and barely missed at all. Tuivasa ended the round by riling up the crowd and it carried over into the third, which famously created the moment where the Aussie caught a massive roundhouse kick to the chin; he feigned a loss of balance to entice the Frenchman’s killer instinct and pounced back with a flurry of hooks.
By this point, ‘Bam Bam’ put his defences to the wayside and started trash-talking his opponent as they exchanged huge hooks. With less than 40 seconds left of the round, Gane managed to punch all sense out of Tuivasa and smashed him into the floor of the cage before referee Mark Goddard called an end to the beating.
The French crowd was electric and before them stood the best chance of a champion from L’Hexagone there’s ever been. 2023 is surely going to be a fruitful year for Cyril Gane, and there’s no doubt we’ll see Tai Tuivasa back at the top too.
4) Dustin Poirier vs Michael Chandler, UFC 281
Michael Chandler has never been involved in a boring fight. The man oozes an obnoxious bravado that makes him loved by fans, while his opponents want to take his head off. In one of the promotion’s sweethearts, Dustin Poirier was always a tough man to take on.
There’s probably not a title shot in Poirier’s future anymore but that doesn’t stop him taking on the best lightweights on offer, and halting Chandler is another fine chapter in a phenomenal fighting career.
Round one was as explosive and violent as we’ve come to expect from the pair. Chandler was backing The Diamond into the corners of the cage and unleashing his signature overhands. What Chandler didn’t account for was how good Poirier is at fighting with his back against the wall. Dustin countered with straight hands and landed with great success, opening cuts on Chandler before heading to the ground.
Round two continued in the same vein, with the former Bellator champion heading for more ground domination, but got caught fish-hooking his opponent as he looked for a rear naked choke, something that is explicitly banned in the UFC. The third stanza saw the bloodbath finish with Dustin Poirier latching onto the neck of his opponent after 90 seconds of ground and pound, before the rear naked choke ended Chandler’s fight.
There’s not always ‘afters’ in combat sports but Poirier took exception to Chandler’s fish-hooking incident and refused to shake hands with him before settling their differences about 60 seconds later with a small conversation.
3) Israel Adesanya vs Alex Pereira 3, UFC 281
The biggest story of the year saw the third match-up between middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and his arch nemesis, Alex Pereira. In the previous two meetings, Pereira had handed Adesanya defeats on both occasions in the kickboxing format, once by decision and the other with a left hook knockout.
The story was there and the fight was set to be epic. Pereira was flying into the Octagon off the back of demolishing Sean Strickland in a first round knockout, and Adesanya had proven that he is a worthy long-term champion and future hall-of-famer. The fight got underway and Pereira emerged from his corner with fire in his eyes, but Adesanya narrowly claimed the first round thanks to a late stunning blow to Pereira.
Round two rolled along and the Brazilian was growing tired, but not tired enough for Izzy to unload some offense. He ended the round strongly with a surprise takedown that shocked fans who didn’t expect to see any groundwork from such an expert striker. Rounds three and four were slightly more subdued with Israel Adesanya wrestling his opponent, aiming to control the championship rounds to squeeze out a victory over his old foe.
Now most sports stories get talked about as having scripts. This one was the oldest story in the book. As Qui-Gon Jinn once said, ‘There’s always a bigger fish’ and Pereira was lurking, waiting for his chance to strike. With just over three minutes to go in the fight, Pereira landed the first uppercut of a flurry that left Adesanya scrambling for a clinch to save his belt and to stay in the fight. That clinch was rejected by Pereira who landed 12 consecutive head punches against a visibly struggling Adesanya. The referee intervened and a new king was born in Madison Square Garden.
2) Glover Teixeira vs Jiri Prochazka, UFC 275
Heading away from the UK, USA and The Apex for the first time since the pre-pandemic days, the UFC made the trip to Singapore and the headline act was for the light heavyweight title. Glover Teixeira, 42, held the belts as the then-current oldest champion, and was seemingly getting better every week. Jiri Prochazka on the other hand was making a name for himself with big wins, whether it be brutal knockouts, deadly submissions or dominating decisions.
The first round went the way of the champion, after dealing well with the Czech’s low stance and kicks, ending up with dominant ground control. Round two was much of the same with the addition of a brutal elbow towards the end of the round that split the challenger’s eyebrow wide open, but the horn sounded before Glover could work his way into an armbar.
By round three, the pendulum started to swing the other way. Jiri was defending takedowns well and landing strikes good enough to make his veteran opponent look tired and weathered. They rolled around a bit more at the end of the round in typically chaotic fashion.
The fight rumbled on into the championship rounds and with just 28 seconds to go, Teixeira forfeited his title as he succumbed to the rear naked choke of Prochazka. It was chaos from start to finish on the ground and on the feet.
1) Kamaru Usman vs Leon Edwards 2, UFC 278
There’s a lot of combat sports athletes who adopt the nickname ‘Rocky’, but there are very few who actually live a story comparable to the tales of everyone’s favourite fictional boxer.
Leon Edwards did just that. An adopted Birmingham boy after moving from Kingston aged nine, he really had to fight for every opportunity in life. He avoided a life of crime after joining an MMA club aged 17, but the dream of becoming world champion probably seemed lightyears away. He joined the UFC in 2014, but had two losses in the promotion to his name. One in his first fight to Claudio Silva and the other to pound-for-pound great and welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman.
The rematch this year was nothing short of epic for UK fans. Edwards might not have been a household name for casual fight fans in the USA before his title shot, but his win cemented his place in folklore forever, as he stunned the world by knocking Usman unconscious with a beautifully clean head kick.
Forget the round-by-round analysis, all you need to do is watch Edwards sit down at the end of the fourth round and get screamed at by his coach“Well stop feeling sorry for your f*cking self. Come on then!” bellowed Dave Lovell before the final round began.
Seconds before the winning blow, you can hear Lovell scream out for the straight-fake that saw Usman dip his head into the oncoming head kick. If you’ve never watched this fight, spend just a few moments of your day watching the most incredible comeback you’ll see this year.
Honourable Mentions: Zhang vs Jedrzejczyk, Gamrot vs Tsarukyan, Chimaev vs Burns, Moreno vs Figuieredo 3, Cruz vs Vera.
