UFC 2022 Preview: Rising Stars, What to Watch, and More

The UFC will endorse its to start with event of the calendar year this Saturday, placing an close to a four-7 days lull. Saturday’s event, an beneath-the-radar Struggle Night time headlined by featherweight contenders Calvin Kattar and Giga Chikadze, is not precisely a blockbuster. But it will kickstart UFC 2022, which has a packed routine of fights that very likely will not sluggish down right up until this time next calendar year.

 

 

As MMA enthusiasts the entire world over wait around for the UFC’s frantic calendar to get underway, we decided to put alongside one another a speedy primer for the calendar year forward. Here’s every little thing you need to have to know about the UFC this calendar year.

UFC 2022 Preview: What to Watch This Yr

Recapping 2021

The UFC promoted forty three gatherings in 2021, like 13 star-studded pay-per-views. By the time the calendar year was carried out, UFC president Dana White was proclaiming it the very best in the company’s background.

“It was the very best calendar year we ever had,” White informed the Las Vegas Evaluate-Journal previously this thirty day period. “We’re popping on each metric you can visualize. Sponsorship is by the roof. Social media, our numbers on pay-per-watch, our numbers on television, arena documents. This business is on fireplace.”

Now the stage is set for an exciting 2022. The UFC has twelve divisions: 8 for men and four for women. Individuals divisions are at this time dominated by twelve undisputed champions and two interim champions. (You can watch the whole rankings on the UFC web page.)

Soaring Stars to Watch

The UFC’s champions may well be the ones driving pay-per-watch profits, but it’s the up-and-comers who maintain the promotion’s product or service interesting calendar year immediately after calendar year. The UFC 2022 roster is packed with intriguing prospective customers, and some are now becoming hailed as foreseeable future champions. Here are a number of rising stars to maintain an eye on.

Ian Garry

Ireland’s Ian Garry (8–0) is now drawing comparisons to a different Irishman you may possibly have heard of: previous two-division UFC champ Conor McGregor. In fact, immediately after successful his UFC debut with a to start with-spherical knockout of Jordan Williams at UFC 268 in November, Garry essentially borrowed one of McGregor’s most famed soundbites.

“A clever Irishman as soon as said before me—he stepped in this really cage and he said, ‘We’re not below to consider part, we’re below to consider over,’” Garry informed Daniel Cormier in his put up-struggle job interview. “This is the takeover part two.”

Alex Pereira

Brazilian middleweight Alex Pereira (4–1) produced a ton of hoopla heading into his Octagon debut at UFC 268 in November. The 34-calendar year-old is an skilled kickboxer, and he even retains a knockout victory over reigning UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya in kickboxing competitors.

To say Pereira lived up to the hoopla would be an understatement. The Brazilian ended up giving us one of the very best knockouts of 2021 as he decimated his opponent, Andreas Michailidis, with a next-spherical flying knee.

Pereira is very likely nevertheless some distance from a title shot, but it feels like only a make a difference of time before he’s in that conversation.

Erin Blanchfield

The women’s flyweight division is at this time property to several promising young fighters, but none of them have a brighter foreseeable future than 22-calendar year-old Erin Blanchfield (8–1). Soon after a thriving operate by Invicta, an all-women’s MMA league, she manufactured a thriving UFC debut in September by defeating the a lot more skilled Sarah Alpar in a unanimous determination. Blanchfield then picked up a different gain before the calendar year was out, dominating fellow prospect Miranda Maverick to an spectacular unanimous determination triumph.

Blanchfield has nevertheless to debut in the flyweight top fifteen but will likely do so if she wins her next struggle. From there, she’ll be just a number of wins absent from a showdown with dominating flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko.

Paddy Pimblett

Paddy Pimblett (17–3) has been a preferred among hardcore struggle enthusiasts for a a long time, but he did not make his UFC debut right up until September 2021. The 27-calendar year-old British lightweight could not have manufactured a louder assertion in his debut, as he weathered some early adversity to switch the lights off on Luigi Vendramini with a swarm of to start with-spherical hooks.

Pimblett beforehand gained the Cage Warriors featherweight championship in Europe. It will not be quick to repeat the feat in the UFC lightweight division—arguably the toughest division in the sport—but numerous think the Brit can pull it off.

Storylines to Watch

Conor McGregor’s Crossroads

Conor McGregor (22–6) stays the most significant star in MMA, but his reliability is hanging by a thread. The Irishman is using back-to-back stoppage losses to Dustin Poirier, the next of which still left him with a damaged leg. He’s now down to 2–3 in his last five fights.

McGregor’s superstardom suggests he can consider a lot more losses than most fighters. Even so, he’s not immune to the effects of a extended getting rid of streak. If the 33-calendar year-old hopes to remain a genuine player in the sport that manufactured him famed, he requires to gain his next struggle.

It stays to be witnessed when he’ll struggle next, but he lately informed his Twitter followers that he hopes to be sparring by April and back in the Octagon before long thereafter.

Francis Ngannou’s Future

UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou (16–3) is set to headline UFC 270 on Jan. 22. He’ll be using on the division’s interim champion Ciryl Gane—who occurs to be his previous coaching partner.

Every UFC title struggle is essential, but this one is particularly important for Ngannou. The 35-calendar year-old French-Cameroonian is in the midst of a heated deal dispute with the UFC, and he’s angling for a lot more cash and the flexibility to moonlight as a specialist boxer.

If he defeats Gane, his negotiating ability will skyrocket. If he loses, he can wave goodbye to the deal he’s hoping for. He’s gambling on himself, and time will notify if it pays off.

Redemption for Amanda Nunes

Amanda Nunes (21–5) seemed invincible right up until UFC 269 in December, when she ran into Julianna Peña. Despite entering the cage as a gargantuan betting preferred, the 33-calendar year-old Brazilian was battered to a next-spherical submission loss, surrendering the UFC bantamweight title in the method. It was a stunning close to one of the most dominant championship reigns in UFC background.

The excellent news for Nunes is that she’s anticipated to get a chance at redemption in opposition to Peña before long. Her previous dominance all but guarantees her that option. Considering the fact that UFC 269, there has been rampant speculation that Nunes was not at her very best that night—even UFC president Dana White contributed to the rumors. Peña, in the meantime, is adamant that she’s Nunes’s excellent.

The rematch should really answer these questions one way or the other.

Khamzat Chimaev’s Rise

Chechen-born Swede Khamzat Chimaev (10–0) took the MMA entire world by storm in 2020 and 2021 with four seemingly easy victories throughout the middleweight and welterweight divisions. His last, a to start with-spherical submission defeat of Chinese welterweight contender Li Jingliang, was particularly spectacular, and it attained him the No. 11 location in the welterweight rankings.

At this stage, it feels inescapable that Chimaev will close up complicated for the UFC welterweight title, which is at this time the house of Kamaru Usman. It would not be surprising to see Chimaev contend for the middleweight title someday thereafter. Of training course, both of those of these items count on his ongoing achievements in the Octagon.

Is Chimaev the true offer or a flash in the pan? 2022 should really notify us a ton about the UFC’s latest superstar.

Fights We Hope to See This Yr

Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz III

Conor McGregor (22–6) and Nate Diaz (20–13) have been tied with a gain apiece since 2016. Supporters have been clamoring for a tie-breaking trilogy struggle ever since McGregor gained their next face by the vast majority determination, nevertheless the UFC has consequently far stored it off the routine.

At the start out of 2022, the trilogy would make as substantially feeling as ever. McGregor is using back-to-back losses to Dustin Poirier. Diaz came up small in opposition to Leon Edwards and Jorge Masvidal in his last two fights. Each guys are in desperate need to have of a gain and low on solutions. Why wait around any for a longer period?

Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway III

UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski (23–1) is 2- in fights in opposition to Max Holloway (23–6), the division’s previous champ, but both of those victories were really competitive decisions. The next was particularly close—in fact, it was downright controversial.

Right now, it’s abundantly apparent that Volkanovski and Holloway are the two very best featherweights in the UFC. What is not apparent is which of them is better. A third struggle would answer that query.

The UFC essentially tried using to reserve that bout for UFC 272 on March 5, but the struggle fell by immediately after Holloway was hurt. Ideally the promotion requires a different stab at the matchup as soon as the previous champ is recovered.

Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones

There was a period of time in early 2021 when all signals pointed to a titanic showdown in between Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones. Ngannou, arguably the toughest puncher in fight sports these days, had just captured the UFC heavyweight title with a star-creating knockout of Stipe Miocic. Jones, the most dominant fighter in gentle heavyweight background, had lately vacated the division’s throne with ambition to transfer up to heavyweight.

Regretably, the struggle fizzled out before it ever bought off the ground. Thinking of Ngannou’s ongoing deal dispute with the UFC and Jones’ authorized troubles exterior the cage, it’s uncertain they’ll struggle every single other any time in the near foreseeable future. But if we’re truly blessed, we may well just see it before the calendar year is out.

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