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Islam Makhachev finishing the most decorated grappler in UFC history secured him lightweight gold and MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Year for 2022.
With another action-packed year of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie takes a look at the best submissions from January to December 2022.
As voted on by our entire staff, here are the top 10 and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Year.
Mateusz Gamrot to Michael Chandler: “Let’s make a war at spring and see who’s the better wrestler.”
[autotag]Mateusz Gamrot[/autotag] wants to test his wrestling against [autotag]Michael Chandler[/autotag].
Both Gamrot and Chandler are recently coming off losses, with Gamrot dropping a unanimous decision to Beneil Dariush at UFC 280 and Chandler getting submitted by Dustin Poirier this past weekend at UFC 281.
Chandler showed off some of his wrestling when he was able to control Poirier in Round 2. But a slam takedown attempt in Round 3 was reversed by Poirier, which set up the fight-ending rear-naked choke.
American Top Team’s Gamrot (21-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) took to Instagram to challenge fellow super gym standout, Kill Cliff FC’s Chandler (23-8 MMA, 2-3 UFC).
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck_Zu7lrU1S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
“Hey @mikechandlermma if you still wanna be counted as a title contender, let’s make a war at spring and see who’s the better wrestler. 🤼🔥 Winner is going up! Enjoy your well deserved rest for now 👊.”
Gamrot’s loss to Dariush snapped a four-fight winning streak, which came over the likes of Arman Tsarukyan and Carlos Diego Ferreira. After scoring a Knockout of the Year contender over Tony Ferguson at UFC 274, Chandler failed to string together a winning streak in the octagon when he was stopped by Poirier.
But Chandler hasn’t given up on his title hopes just yet and continued to chase after former UFC dual-champion Conor McGregor, who’s expected to return from his leg injury in 2023. However, the Irish superstar still needs to re-enter the USADA testing pool and complete six months, as he hasn’t been tested all of 2022.
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Watch a preview of the latest edition of “The Thrill and the Agony,” which goes behind the scenes in the aftermath of UFC 280.
Watch a preview for the latest edition of “The Thrill and the Agony,” which goes behind the scenes of UFC 280.
At the event, which took place Oct. 22 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, [autotag]Islam Makhachev[/autotag] (23-1 MMA, 12-1 UFC) submitted Charles Oliveira (33-9 MMA, 21-9 UFC) to capture the vacant lightweight title.
In the co-headliner, UFC bantamweight champion [autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag] (22-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) dominated an injured T.J. Dillashaw (17-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) to notch his second title defense.
Finally, in the featured bout, [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] (16-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) edged out former champion Petr Yan (16-4 MMA, 8-3 UFC) in a Fight of the Night effort.
In a preview of “The Thrill and the Agony” special from UFC 280, which is available for UFC Fight Pass subscribers, we get an all-access look at the immediate aftermath of O’Malley, Sterling and Makhachev’s wins.
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You can watch the preview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 280.
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Dustin Poirier credits Islam Makhachev for beating Charles Oliveira “as smooth as you can possibly go in there and do it.”
[autotag]Dustin Poirier[/autotag] praises new UFC lightweight champion [autotag]Islam Makhachev[/autotag] for his flawless performance against Charles Oliveira.
Makhachev (23-1 MMA, 12-1 UFC) dominated Oliveira en route to a second-round submission to claim the vacant title at UFC 280. Having been submitted by Oliveira at UFC 269, Poirier was amazed by what Makhachev did to him.
“Man, very impressed,” Poirier told Yahoo Sports. “Very impressed. He went in there and did it as smooth as you can possibly go in there and do it. You know, no marks, no cuts, no bruises, and he’s a world champion. That’s a sweet night, man. I’m very impressed with him.”
Not only did Makhachev control Oliveira on the ground, but it was a left hook that started the fight-ending sequence. With Makhachev already possessing a top-level ground game, Poirier complimented the newly crowned champ for rounding out his skillset.
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“I mean, it’s huge,” Poirier said. “You know, you can’t be – in this day and age in mixed martial arts, you can’t be a fighter who has one thing. You have to be able to do it all. You have to be a mixed martial artist, and he showed that. He went out there and hurt Charles and then put him away at his own game. That’s the highest level.”
Poirier (28-7 MMA, 20-6 UFC) returns to action Nov. 12 when he faces former Bellator champ and UFC title challenger Michael Chandler (23-7 MMA, 2-2 UFC) at UFC 281 in New York.
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T.J. Dillashaw’s opinion on UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling hasn’t changed after facing him in the cage.
[autotag]T.J. Dillashaw[/autotag] doesn’t have any regrets about taking the fight with UFC bantamweight champion [autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag].
Dillashaw (17-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) came into his UFC 280 title fight against Sterling (22-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) with a shoulder injury but decided to roll the dice on competing anyway. The worst case scenario happened as Dillashaw’s shoulder popped out early in the fight. With Dillashaw compromised, Sterling dominated Dillashaw en route to a second-round TKO stoppage, but Dillashaw said he was always going to take the chance in what he considered a very winnable fight.
“I took a gamble, as well, and that’s why it’s called f*cking gambling,” Dillashaw said Wednesday on “The MMA Hour.” “You don’t know the situation. I took a gamble. I could have sat out and got surgery, but when I come back, who knows if I’m gonna get a title shot right away? Or I’m going to have to fight my way back up in it or how bad this shoulder is. Let’s be honest: This is my third surgery in my left shoulder. It’s not like I’m a spring f*cking chicken, and it’s going to be an easy fix. It’s a serious thing. I will be coming back. I’m not gonna let my story end that way.
“But it’s still in the back of your head: I go and get surgery, I’m out for a year. And I was just out on surgery. There’s no guarantee you get a title fight when you come back. There’s a lot of options I’m weighing out of me getting this fight against a guy that’s very beatable. I think he’s the most beatable champion right now in the division. People are gonna give me sh*t for that, but I think he’s got some big holes in his game, and I matched up well with him. So I’m going to roll them dice, and I’m going to bet on myself even with one arm.”
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With the win over Dillashaw, Sterling now has defended his title twice. But Dillashaw is still not sold on Sterling as a champion.
“I feel like he was gifted the belt to begin with, and then he squeaked by with a win (in the rematch against Petr Yan),” Dillashaw said. “He’s a great athlete, he’s on a great win streak, he’s gotten to the top, but I don’t think he’s the best champion we’ve got out there. I don’t think he’s the best in the division, especially in the division we have, and that was an opportunity I wasn’t going to let slip through my fingers even though it did. My opinion has not changed. … I think his teammate, Merab (Dvalishvili), beats him.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 280.
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With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from October 2022.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from October 2022: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Month award for October.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submission from October 2022.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from October 2022: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Month award for October.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best knockouts from October 2022.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best knockouts from October 2022: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Knockout of the Month award for October.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
Aljamain Sterling says Sean O’Malley proved he can hang with the elite of the UFC bantamweight division by beating Petr Yan.
UFC bantamweight champion [autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag] says [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] proved he can hang with the elite of the division by beating [autotag]Petr Yan[/autotag].
O’Malley (16-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) edged out former champion Yan at UFC 280 last week on the same night that Sterling retained his title by finishing T.J. Dillashaw. Although he thinks O’Malley would struggle against a grappler, Sterling (22-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) believes O’Malley answered a lot of questions by standing toe to toe with Yan.
“I always acknowledged that Sean had serious skill,” Sterling told MMA Junkie. “I acknowledge that we didn’t know how tough he is. When he’s the hammer, we know he’s really, really good. We didn’t know if he becomes the nail and had some push back, will he fold? Will he rise to the occasion? …
“He showed he belonged. Exactly what I said from the get-go about him: I thought he was skilled, and I thought he could compete with the best guys, because most of these guys in the top of the division, they’re strikers. So, you give him a striker like Petr Yan, you’re giving him exactly what he wants. He’s tall for the weight class, he can kickbox his ass off, he’s pinpoint accurate, kind of reminds me of a (Conor) McGregor with his hands.”
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There was much dispute from MMA fans and media about O’Malley earning the split decision win, but after re-watching the fight with Yan, Sterling thinks the judges got it right.
“29-28, I gave it to O’Malley,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “That’s my personal opinion, my take. Don’t think that I’m running from Petr Yan. I think this fight was that close. Either one of these guys I’d fight. It’s a tough fight, regardless, so it doesn’t matter. So if you think that I can fight O’Malley, and it’s going to be that easy, it’s not. If you think I’m gonna just run through him, I’m not. I could. I could, but it doesn’t mean I definitely will.”
Michael Chandler didn’t see the big deal with Islam Makhachev before UFC 280, but he sees it now.
[autotag]Michael Chandler[/autotag] has walked back his original thoughts on UFC lightweight champion [autotag]Islam Makhachev[/autotag].
Prior to Makhachev claiming the title at UFC 280, Chandler (23-7 MMA, 2-2 UFC) criticized his resume and said he’s not even close to his mentor, Khabib Nurmagomedov. But after Makhachev (23-1 MMA, 12-1 UFC) dominated and finished Charles Oliveira to capture gold, Chandler has changed his tune.
“Islam is the real deal,” Chandler said in an interview with MMA On Point. “I think when I was asked before about it, my answer, I stand behind it. Islam hadn’t fought anybody in that top five and not necessarily just that, but it was the fact that Charles had looked so dominant, as well … Charles ran through, what, four guys? He fought me then he beat (Dustin) Poirier and beat (Justin) Gaethje.
“You’re talking the who’s who of the top three, top five guys and the impressiveness in the nature in which he was finishing guys, he just looked awesome. Islam came out there and showed that he was a force to be reckoned with on the feet, obviously a force to be reckoned with on the ground, and caught Charles in that choke, and we have a new champion, and his name is Islam.”
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Chandler, who fell short to Oliveira in his first shot at UFC gold in May 2021, is hoping to re-cement himself as the No. 1 contender with a win over Dustin Poirier on Nov. 12 at UFC 281.
“Islam proved that he was who he said he was,” Chandler said. “I stand corrected. He’s our champion, and I hope I can go out there on November 12th, can win my fight, and get that title shot soon.”
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