Mixed martial arts is a never-boring sport, and the year 2022 was a prime illustration of that.
Three of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world lost their fights, not simply lost them, over the course of four months.
Due to an injured knee, Francis Ngannou, the hardest puncher in UFC history, defeated Ciryl Gane using wrestling and grappling at the beginning of the year. Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal, who were formerly best friends, continued their feud outside the Octagon, according to later reports. On the scale in May, Charles Oliveira dropped his UFC lightweight championship. In June, Glover Teixeira and Ji Procházka engaged in one of their best ever battles. A month later, Amanda Nunes regained the title from Julianna Pea via pay-per-view after Alexander Volkanovski solidified his place in history.
Then August arrived, and chaos ensued. With less than a minute remaining, Leon Edwards submitted Kamaru Usman, the best fighter in the world based on weight, to win the UFC welterweight championship. Islam Makhachev won the vacant lightweight title in October after effectively outclassing rival pound-for-pound great Rafael Oliveira. And a month later, in November, Alex Pereira won the UFC middleweight championship by knocking out Israel Adesanya in the fifth round of an MMA fight after defeating him twice in kickboxing at 185 pounds.
Due to Procházka’s torn shoulder and the split draw between challengers Jan Blachowicz and Magomedov Ankalaev, the UFC light heavyweight title was vacated at year’s end. That seemed appropriate for 2022, a year that was so unpredictable that it was almost predictable.
Check out the year end award
Alexander Volkanovski – Fighter of the Year
- Defeated chang Sung Jung via TKO
- Defeated Max Holloway via UD
Female Fighter of the Year – Weili Zhang
- Defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk
- Defeated Carla Esparza to become two-time champ
Knockout of the year – Michael Chandler KO of Tony Ferguson (Front Kick)
- Notable Mentions: Leon Edwards KO of Kamaru Usman
- Sergio Pettis Spinning Backfist KO of Kyoji Horiguchi at Bellator 272
Submission of the year – Jiri Prochazka’s submission win over Glover at UFC 275
- Notable Mentions: Charles Oliveira over Justin Gaethje at UFC 274
Breakout Fighter of the year: Alex Pereira
- KO’ed Israel Adesanya
- KO’ed Sean Strickland
- Defeated Bruno Silva
Indian Fighter of the Year: Angad Bisht
- Defeated Mohd Gamal of Egypt via RNC to become MFN Flyweight champ
- Defeated Himanshu Kaushik at MFN 9 via RNC
- Defeated Chaitanya Gavali via RNC at MFN 8
Notable Mentions: Sanjeet Budhwar
- Defeated Atabek Abdimitalipov via Decision at MFN 10
- Defeated Djorde Stajanovic via Decision at MFN 9
- Defeated Dhruv Chaudhary via TKO at MFN 8
Most impactful Indian fighter: Anshul Jubli
- Road to UFC appearance
- Win over kyung Pyo Kim
- Finalist for RTU contract and will fight Indonesia’s Jeka Saragih
Female Indian fighter of the year: Puja Tomar
- Win over Bi Nguyen to become MFN Stawweight Champion
- KO win over Tenzim Pema at MFN 9
Indian KO of the Year: Jojo Rajkumari’s KO win over Mary Jane Buna
Notable Mentions:
- Shyamanand’s KO win over Richard Mearns
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