Tag: Glover Teixiera

Jiri Prochazka vacates after injury; UFC 282 headlined by Magomed Ankalaev vs. Jan Blachowicz title fight

UFC 282 and the light heavyweight division as a whole saw major shakeups after Jiri Prochazka suffered a serious shoulder injury.

[autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag] isn’t UFC light heavyweight champion anymore, and the man expected to challenge for the title no longer will.

The UFC 282 main event between Prochazka (29-3-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and former champ [autotag]Glover Teixiera[/autotag] (33-8 MMA, 16-6 UFC) has been canceled. Prochazka suffered a “serious” shoulder injury and has vacated his title, Yahoo Sports! first reported Wednesday.

With Prochazka out, the promotion has elevated [autotag]Magomed Ankalaev[/autotag] (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) vs. [autotag]Jan Blachowicz[/autotag] (29-9 MMA, 12-6 UFC) to the UFC 282 main event for the 205-pound championship.

“UFC light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka has suffered a shoulder injury that will require a significant rehabilitation period,” the UFC said in a statement. “Out of respect to the athletes and the division, Prochazka has elected to vacate his title and will compete for the belt as soon as he is medically cleared.”

UFC president Dana White later shed light on the severity of Prochazka’s injured right shoulder.

“This is the worst shoulder injury the doctors have seen in UFC history,” White told Yahoo Sports!. “It’s really f*cking bad. His shoulder is very, very bad. He’s going to have serious surgery that will require extensive rehab.”

Yahoo! Sports initially reported that Teixeira “turned down the title fight.” A person with knowledge of the situation later told MMA Junkie that the UFC offered Teixeira to fight Ankalaev for the title at UFC 282, but Teixeira declined because he felt like he needed more time to prepare for a new opponent. Teixeira requested to fight Ankalaev in January at UFC 283 in Brazil, but the UFC said no. Teixeira also asked to fight Blachowicz, whom he defeated for the belt in October 2021, instead of Ankalaev at UFC 282, but the UFC said no.

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UFC 282 takes place Dec. 10 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with the main card on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN/ESPN+.

Prochazka and Teixeira were set to rematch after a wild UFC 275 headliner many viewers deemed a “Fight of the Year” candidate. To cap off a back-and-forth affair, Prochakza submitted Teixeira in the final minutes of the bout to win the title.

Following its conclusion, both Prochazka and Teixeira advocated for a rematch. The UFC obliged and set Ankalaev vs. Blachowicz as a likely title eliminator on the same card.

Blachowicz has won six of his most recent seven outings with his only loss his championship defeat to Teixeira. Meanwhile, Ankalaev has won nine in a row.

With the change, the UFC 282 lineup includes:

  • Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev – for vacant light heavyweight title
  • Robbie Lawler vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
  • Jared Gordon vs. Paddy Pimblett
  • Bryce Mitchell vs. Ilia Topuria
  • Philipe Lins vs. Ovince Saint Preux
  • Dalcha Lungiambula vs. Edmen Shahbazyan
  • Dricus Du Plessis vs. Darren Till
  • Chris Daukaus vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
  • Alexander Hernandez vs. Billy Quarantillo
  • TJ Brown vs. Erik Silva
  • Joaquin Buckley vs. Chris Curtis
  • Ronnie Lawrence vs. Cameron Saaiman
  • Daniel da Silva vs. Vinicius Salvador

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 282.

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Video: Was Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira the greatest light heavyweight title fight ever?

It was an absolute banger by all accounts, but was it the best in division history?

Move over Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson? Maybe.

At UFC 275, [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag] and [autotag]Glover Teixiera[/autotag] put on a fight for the ages when the two high-rate finishers battled it out for nearly five full rounds. The fight nearly reached the final horn, but Prochazka didn’t let it. He submitted Teixeira at 4:32 of Round 5.

The submission capped off an epic back-and-forth brawl, which saw both men in trouble at multiple points of the fight. For Prochazka, the finish earned him a win he likely would not have gotten otherwise, judges’ scorecards later revealed.

The fight was fantastic by all accounts, but just how good was it? Could it be the greatest in light heavyweight history? Or is recency bias getting the best of its most staunch supporters?

Our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Brian “Goze” Garcia, Matthew Wells, and Danny Segura broke it down with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia. Check out their discussion in the video above, and don’t miss the full episode below.

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Jan Blachowicz upset at UFC 267 performance but not discouraged: ‘This book is not closed’

Jan Blachowicz will turn his attention to regaining the light heavyweight title after losing it to Glover Teixeira at UFC 267.

As [autotag]Glover Teixiera[/autotag] smiled while being interviewed in the cage moments after his UFC 267 title victory, [autotag]Jan Blachowicz[/autotag] was distraught. He crouched near the fence with his head down, consoled by his fiancee. And when it was his turn to speak with Daniel Cormier, he was brutally honest in assessing his performance but also optimistic about his future.

“Everything was wrong with me,” Blachowicz said in front of 10,000 fans at Etihad Arena. “I think I left the legendary Polish power at hotel room. That’s what happened. But this is not end of story. This book is not closed. I’m not a quitter. I’m not going anywhere.”

Blachowicz’s reign as UFC light heavyweight champion came to an end Saturday when he tapped out to a Teixeira rear-naked choke in the second round of his title fight in Abu Dhabi. Teixeira (33-7 MMA, 16-5 UFC), two days after his 42nd birthday, became the second oldest champion in UFC history – behind only Randy Couture – with an impressive showing against Blachowicz (28-9 MMA, 11-6 UFC).

With a little more time to think about, Blachowicz reiterated that he wasn’t at his best in the cage – but he also didn’t want to take away from Teixeira’s win.

“I think my performance tonight was horrible,” Blachowicz said in his post-fight news conference (via MMA Fighting). “I don’t know. I wasn’t champion today. He was. He is. …

“For sure something was bad. It wasn’t me (in there). I don’t want to explain myself. He beat me. Everybody see. It is what it is.”

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Teixeira made a statement early in Round 1 with a takedown to control the majority of the first five minutes. But Blachowicz said he didn’t feel bad after getting through it and figured he could make adjustments and rebound in the second.

“But he don’t let me do this,” Blachowicz said. “He just take me down and submit me. What can I say more? I feel like sh*t, and that’s it.”

For Blachowicz, 38, the future is unclear after a whirlwind 13 months. He won the title vacated by Jon Jones last year with a TKO of Dominick Reyes at UFC 253. That was followed up by a successful title defense against middleweight champ Israel Adesanya, whom Blachowicz handed his first defeat this past March at UFC 259.

Blachowicz said he needs to rest a little before he returns to the octagon, hopefully in March. And when he does, he’ll be gunning to make another run at gold inspired by Teixeira’s remarkable late-career resurgence.

“He’s 3 years older than me, so it’s something (that shows me) I have some time to get this belt back,” Blachowicz said. “And that is what I’d like to do in the future.”

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