Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Check out which epic battle earned MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Year award for 2022.
With another action-packed year of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie takes a look at the best fights from January to December 2022.
As voted on by our entire staff, here are the top five and winner of MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Year.
The UFC has narrowed its list of top 2022 knockout candidates down to a four-KO shortlist of super highlight-reel finishes.
The UFC has narrowed its list of top 2022 knockout candidates down to a four-KO shortlist.
The promotion this week unveiled the four finalists on its list for Knockout of the Year. Fans can vote for their favorite of the four through the UFC’s YouTube channel or social media platforms.
Two women and two men make up the final four, and more than they were brutal – and they all were – all the candidates seemed to come out of nowhere, making them nearly impossible to defend against.
Check out the four finalists on the UFC’s list below, as well as looks back at their aftermaths. In addition, you can see a recap of all four highlight-reel finishes in the video above.
Chael Sonnen lauds Leon Edwards and Alex Pereira for their title-winning finishes, but they’re not his 2022 Comeback of the Year.
[autotag]Chael Sonnen[/autotag] lauds [autotag]Leon Edwards[/autotag] and [autotag]Alex Pereira[/autotag] for their title-winning finishes, but they’re not his 2022 Comeback of the Year.
Edwards (20-3 MMA, 12-2 UFC) came from behind to land a stunning head kick knockout of Kamaru Usman at UFC 278 to capture the welterweight title. Edwards was down 3-1 heading into Round 5 before he blasted Usman with a perfect head shot. The finish came with 56 seconds remaining in the fight.
Pereira (7-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) also was down 3-1 before he rallied to finish and dethrone middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in Round 5 at UFC 281.
But for Sonnen, it’s [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag]’s submission of Glover Teixeira at UFC 275 that gets his pick. After a back-and-forth fight, Prochazka submitted Teixeira with 28 seconds left in the fight. He was down 3-1 on two of the three judges’ scorecards.
“It was Prochazka over Glover,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “I just thought for how great that fight was, for how many times it looked like that fight was going to be stopped, and then the fact that we get the mathematical equation at the end of the night, which is that Glover was 30 seconds away from remaining world champion.
“He did not have to beat Prochazka. He didn’t have to win the round. He didn’t have to win another sequence. He didn’t have to land another punch. He just had to run out the clock. I thought that Prochazka should have got more credit.”
Prochazka (29-3-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and Teixeira’s fight had various momentum swings in which each fighter looked like he was about to get finished. But ultimately, Prochazka was able to outlast the Brazilian.
The pair was booked for a title-fight rematch at UFC 282, but Prochazka vacated his belt after a severe shoulder injury that required surgery put him on the sidelines indefinitely.
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Only a handful of championship bouts in UFC history have ended in the fifth round, and 2022 provided perhaps the most memorable of them all.
There were a number of UFC title changes over the past year, but three stood out from the bunch as the most dramatic.
Only a handful of championship bouts in UFC history have ended in the fifth round, and 2022 provided perhaps the most memorable of them all as [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag], [autotag]Leon Edwards[/autotag] and [autotag]Alex Pereira[/autotag] all staged incredible come-from-behind wins to put gold around their waists.
At UFC 274 in June, Prochazka (29-3-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) went tooth-and-nail with Glover Teixeira (33-8 MMA, 16-6 UFC) in one of the top Fight of the Year contenders. After coming close to being finished on multiple occasions, Prochazka dug deep in the final round and choked Teixeira into submission to become the new UFC light heavyweight champion.
Just two months later at UFC 278 in August, Edwards (19-3 MMA, 11-2 UFC) was less than two minutes away from losing a clear-cut decision to Kamaru Usman (20-2 MMA, 15-1 UFC) in their welterweight title rematch. But then the head kick heard ’round the world unfolded, because Edwards landed the perfect combination to end Usman’s incredible winning streak inside the octagon and become just the second British titleholder in company history.
And lastly, at UFC 282 in November, Pereira (7-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) improved his career combat sports record to 3-0 against Israel Adesanya (23-2 MMA, 12-2 UFC) when he rallied from being down on the scorecards to rock his rival and get the fifth-round TKO to become UFC middleweight champion.
They were three of the all-time moments of perseverance we’ve ever seen at the highest level of the sport, and as 2022 comes to a close, the UFC has put together a highlight reel looking back at these moments that left the audience in shock and awe.
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Check out a full recap of 2022’s most significant footnotes and milestones from the events, the fights and individual performances.
Now that the year has come to a close, and with a major assist from UFC research analyst and live statistics producer Michael Carroll, here are some of 2022’s most significant milestones from the events, the fights and individual performances in the octagon.
“She beat her with one eye, and she still lost. It was horrible.”
[autotag]Julianna Peña[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Taila Santos[/autotag] was robbed against [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag].
Flyweight champion Shevchenko (23-3 MMA, 12-2 UFC) notched her seventh title defense when she edged out Santos (19-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) at UFC 275 on in June. She had to battle through some early adversity to get the win.
Santos got Shevchenko down and took her back on a couple of occasions, but the champion was able to battle out of danger and rally to win the fight. However, UFC bantamweight champion Peña (11-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) thinks the judges got it wrong.
“I had Taila winning,” Peña said in an interview with The Schmo. “She beat her with one eye, and she still lost. It was horrible.”
Shevchenko holds a win over Peña. She submitted “The Venezuelan Vixen” in the second round in a bantamweight bout in 2017. With Shevchenko pondering a move back up to 135 pounds, Peña hopes she gets the opportunity to avenge her loss.
“I know that me and Valentina also have some unfinished business that I would like to get that rematch and run it back, as well,” Peña said. “But I definitely thought that Taila did enough to win, and I was disappointed that she didn’t get the nod.”
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After capturing the bantamweight title with a shocking upset submission finish at UFC 269, Peña is set to rematch Amanda Nunes in the UFC 277 main event July 30.
“This is going to be the biggest, toughest, strongest, fastest, scariest Amanda Nunes that we’ve ever seen, and I am absolutely ready for anything and everything,” Peña said.
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Fresh off the biggest win of his career, Jake Matthews wants to test his striking against one of the division’s best.
Fresh off the biggest win of his career, [autotag]Jake Matthews[/autotag] wants to test his striking against one of the division’s best.
Matthews (17-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) put on a performance of a lifetime when he took out Andre Fialho at UFC 275, displaying his much-improved striking. Winner of seven of his past nine, Matthews wants to capitalize on his momentum by eyeing top welterweight contender [autotag]Santiago Ponzinibbio[/autotag].
He took to Instagram to call the Argentine out.
“PLEASE SHARE AND SPREAD THE WORD @sponzinibbiomma It would be an honour! Let’s stand toe to toe for the fans!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce4N7vbBYjX/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Matthews, who earned a Performance of the Night bonus for his finish of Fialho, even is offering Ponzinibbio (28-6 MMA, 10-5 UFC) half his bonus money if the pair engage in the type of fight he’s expecting.
Matthews cashed in as a big underdog in his most recent win and wants to prove that his performance was no upset.
Ponzinibbio is coming off back-to-back split decision losses to Geoff Neal and, most recently, Michel Pereira in the UFC Fight Night 206 co-main event in May. In an interview with MMA Junkie, Ponzinibbio expressed frustration with his recent results, in which he thought he was wronged by the judges in both losses.
Despite joining the UFC roster in 2014, Matthews still is only 27. After he was submitted by Sean Brady in March 2021, Matthews returned from a layoff of more than a year to defeat Fialho this past Saturday.
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Sure, there is a winner and a loser. But who had more of an impact on the final decision?
In every MMA fights outside of a draw or a no contest, there is a winner and there is a loser.
At UFC 275, [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag] was the winner and with that win came a shiny gold belt. [autotag]Glover Teixeira[/autotag], meanwhile, came up short. He was the loser, despite being seconds away from victory when Prochazka submitted him late in Round 5.
The finish came after mistakes from both men, including a questionable choice by Teixeira to pull for a guillotine choke on a visibly stunned Prochazka. Once on the canvas, both men were in control, until Prochazka snatched an awkward-yet-successful, fight-ending rear-naked choke.
So did Prochazka win or did Teixeira lose? OK, you’re probably thinking both of these things are true. They are – but are they equal? Which was more of a factor?
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.
Daniel Cormier likes Jiri Prochazka over Jan Blachowicz and can see the UFC champ ruling the light heavyweight division for a while.
[autotag]Daniel Cormier[/autotag] can see UFC light heavyweight champion [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag] ruling the division for a while.
Since Jon Jones relinquished the title, the belt has changed hands three times, most recently this past Saturday when Prochazka (29-3-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) submitted Glover Teixeira in the UFC 275 headliner in Singapore.
Projected to be next in line is former champ [autotag]Jan Blachowicz[/autotag] (29-9 MMA, 12-6 UFC) and after watching Prochazka show his championship mettle, Cormier is picking him to retain his belt.
“I think he’s the type of guy that could bring some stability to this weight class,” Cormier said on his ESPN show “DC & RC.” “And even looking at that celebration, it was tremendous to watch him receive that type of adulation going home, but it’s almost odd for him because he lives such a warrior’s code. He’s such an enigma in the sense that this dude’s got that haircut, he’s a samurai, and he just was like basking in it. So I think we saw a different side of Jiri Prochazka.
“Does he bring stability? I think that he can defend this title. I’ll favor him against Jan Blachowicz, and I like Jan Blachowicz. But there’s guys in this weight class: Anthony Smith, Magomed Ankalaev, those guys that would seem to be matchup issues for Jiri Prochazka. But after Saturday, that was a nightmare matchup for him, and he navigated that, and he won the belt, so I do not question that this guy is going to be good for a long time.”
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Blachowicz, who was cageside for Prochazka’s title-winning performance, wasted no time by facing off with the newly crowned champ. Cormier likes the idea of Blachowicz being next in line and wants to see the fight take place in Europe.
“This is only his third UFC fight, and he is now the UFC champion,” Cormier said of Prochazka. “So he’s fantastic, and I believe that he can defend this title, and I think Jan Blachowicz is gonna be next for him.”
He continued, “Everybody tries to set the next thing. This time, though, the next thing is the right thing. With Jan Blachowicz and an ability to go home to Europe and put on a massive fight that literally can take place in front of a stadium.”
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Between a head clash and the scoring of the fight, was the champion lucky to retain her title in Singapore?
[autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag] left Singapore with a title, but it wasn’t just handed to her.
Perhaps one of the more overlooked fighters on the UFC 275 card, [autotag]Taila Santos[/autotag] proved herself a worthy opponent when she took the long-reigning champion the distance. The fight was competitive throughout, though Santos’ best moments came in Round 1 through 3.
A head clash in Round 4 seemed to change the momentum of the bout and caused a broken orbital bone in Santos’ face. But Santos hung tough for the complete duration of the bout.
The scoring of the bout, which served as the co-main event, was highly-debated and discussed among fans and media members.
Between the clash of heads and the judges’ scoring, was Shevchenko lucky to walk away with the title?
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.
