The 2022 MMA Recap Round-Up Rodeo and Breakdown

What even happened in 2022?

Twenty twenty two. What happened. What was the running theme across the MMA landscape? Does anyone remember a fight that happened two weeks ago, let alone in January? I sure don’t!

UFC

UFC in 2022. What can be said about the biggest MMA organization this past year? Baffling booking decisions, shelved stars, uncrowned kings, vacant titles, all underpinned by a growing sense of dread and sadness would be a decent start.

The Children’s Army is here from the Contender Series, and their gnashing teeth are hungry to rip the flesh from any regional journeyman thrown their way for paltry sums. The young always eat the old, of course, but 2022 seemed particularly harsh. Maybe it’s that so many legendary figures retired, most on pronounced losing streaks of vicious knockouts, their last wins often coming years ago. Cowboy Cerrone, Eddie Wineland, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Luke Rockhold, Marlon Moraes (briefly), Roxanne Modafferi, and Frankie Edgar all hung up their gloves this year. Zabit Magomedshapirov finally announced an end to his fighting career, despite not competing for 3 years, stating he was training to become a doctor. Tony Ferguson didn’t retire, but maybe should, as he’s now lost 5 in a row. Nate Diaz finally fought out the end of his UFC contract, offering cryptic statements regarding his next moves.

In the various world title scenes, it was a mixture of new blood, as 7 championships directly changed hands inside the cage, more of the same, with 8 title bouts being some form of rematch, and pure chaos, as there were three bouts that saw a title vacancy going into the bout, and only one resolving with a champion at the end of the night.

Jon Jones spent another year doing crimes and not fighting after talks of him moving to Heavyweight, either as an immediate title challenger, or in a title eliminator were merely chatter. Stipe Miocic, at points floated for Jones’ heavyweight debut, was also out of action all of 2022. Francis Ngannou defended the Heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane in January, but knee injuries requiring surgery in March put him on the shelf for the remainder of the year.

Light Heavyweight saw something resembling stability for most of the year, but then hilariously tripped and busted its shit up right at the end. Czech madman Jiri Prochazka took the title from Glover Texeira in June in one of the wildest fights in recent memory. A rematch was scheduled for December, but Jiri tore his shoulder to shreds in a training accident, presumably when he got launched by an ornery rhinoceros. Glover was given the

option of facing Magomed Ankalaev on short notice or fucking off, and being an old man with morals, he chose the latter.

Ankalaev then faced his originally scheduled opponent, the man Glover was willing to face on a truncated training schedule, Jan Blachowicz, and the two fought to a split draw that left Dana White severely unhappy, which is about all I can ask for these days. Rather than have the two men who fought tooth and nail for 25 minutes face each other once more to crown the 205 lb champion, the UFC is executing a hard pivot to Glover taking on Jamahal Hill in the UFC’s return to Brazil in 2023. Remember, world championship titles are merely honorifics that go to the best fighter of the night. UFC argued this point in a court of law, and there’s no reason to consider them anything beyond this.

Middleweight was disrupted by the most ancient technique: Punching a motherfucker extremely hard in the face. Israel Adesanya looked, perhaps unstoppable isn’t the right word, more accurate to say he was simply not going to lose. He appeared content to fight a methodica stylel, not exposing himself to danger, using movement and defense to stymie the offense of his opponents and take decision wins. He’d done it to Robert Whittaker in their rematch, and he did it to Jared Cannonier. Then, from his past, with the most favorable matchmaking the UFC had put together not seen since Conor McGregor avoided his own slate of wrestleboxers, Alex Pereira returned, a horrible boogeyman. Some said those kickboxing losses didn’t matter, this was MMA. Was one fight an extremely controversial decision? Sure. Didn’t the knockout loss come moments after Izzy had put a standing 8-count on Pereira? Well, yes, as a matter of fact, it did. Was Pereira down in the fight, having been pushed and out grappled? Yeah, but all it takes is punching a motherfucker extremely hard in the face. Middleweight’s newest kingpin is extremely one-dimensional and it will be interesting to see how much more protection he’ll get.

Welterweight, what a journey. Kamaru Usman had won 19 fights in a row, having not tasted defeat since his second ever pro fight. He was 15-0 in the UFC, he had 5 title defenses on his resume. He was handily winning the fight with Leon Edwards, a man he beat nearly 7 years ago. Sixty seconds. That’s all that was left in the fight to salt away his 20th win in a row, his 6th title defense. Life, and in this particular case, shin bones, come at you fast.

Nothing gold can stay, Ponyboy. The Charles Oliveira Experience was one fucking hell of a ride. He came into the UFC at 21, a 12-0 prospect. Over the next 7 years, he went 10-8 in the UFC, prospect status fully eradicated. Then, between 2018 and 2022, he won 11 in a row, set and shattered records for most submissions and finishes in UFC history, captured the Lightweight title, and defended it, knocking off some of the best 155 lb fighters in the process. 2022 saw things take a turn, though. First, he missed weight, losing the belt on the scale, but that didn’t matter, the champion has a name, and it is Charles Oliveira, as he choked out Justin Gaethje in one round. And then, from the Caucasus mountains came his doom. Islam Makhachev arrived, tossed him around, and took the belt back to Makhachkala. It looked like nobody could beat Oliveira, and now that Islam won without much fuss, the question now becomes who can beat Makhachev?

Featherweight, man. To quote former title challenger Chan Sung Jung, fighting champion Alexander Volkanovski is like fighting a wall. People throw themselves at him, and sure, maybe they find a little success: drop him in an early round, get him in a tight guillotine. But guess what, there’s still more

wall. Max Holloway, at one point considered the finest example of 145 lb fighting man in all the land, has been reduced to an ancient king of yore, standing on the shore, futilely beating at the tide to retreat with a sword that’s just getting rusty. Volkanovski is going to challenge Makhachev for the Lightweight title, and we might actually see him face adversity in that one. But at Featherweight? Good luck, my friend, good luck.

To some, Bantamweight is a kingdom of ash, ruled over by a fraudulent usurper. Aljamain Sterling claimed the belt because Petr Yan is a violent idiot, and it’s not entirely clear on a given day which of those descriptors wins out. The long-anticipated rematch saw Sterling fare much better, because hey, maybe when a fighter requires surgery, and they get that surgery, they can perform at a much higher level! Aljo won a split decision, that of course was declared a robbery and a miscarriage of justice. He then fought TJ Dillashaw, and whoops, TJ should have got fucking surgery. His arm flopped around basically from the opening bell, and Sterling got another win that a certain set of people will discount as not legitimate. Oof.

Speaking of oof, Flyweight! Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueiredo met for the third time in just over a year, with Figueiredo taking the title back. Of course, a fourth bout was quickly planned, but a hand injury forced Deiveson on the shelf for the remainder of the year. Because UFC can’t go more than a few weeks without a title on the poster, Moreno was booked for an interim title fight against Kai Kara-France, and since Kai Kara-France isn’t Deiveson Figureido, Moreno won the bout. The rest of the Flyweight division exists, in theory, but you probably wouldn’t know that given how little shine in booking it gets.

Women’s Featherweight does not exist, has never existed, and will never exist in the UFC. Move on.

Bantamweight saw the return of the Queen, as Amanda Nunes, having recovered from Covid, beat the mess out of Julianna Pena, leaving her presumably even more confused about how old she is. Nunes hecked off for vacation and will possibly finish her trilogy with Pena in 2023. Beyond that the top 5 are three people who have already lost, badly, to Nunes, and two people on two fight winning streaks.

My god, Valentina Shevchenko showed a flaw. She defeated Talia Santos, but it was a split decision, making Santos the first person in UFC Flyweight history to take one judge’s scorecard against Valentina. Obviously, this means that Santos should fight Erin Blachfield in 2023, while Shevchenko takes on not the person that gave her the toughest test. Manon Fiorot might have been the next woman up, after beating Katlyn Chookagian, but she decided she wasn’t quite ready. I guess Alexa Grasso has a decent win streak going. Oh well.

Strawweight is a land of flux and chaos. Rose Namajunas put on an all time bad performance against Carla Esparza, losing the title in a truly terrible fight. Esparza got obliterated by Zhang Weili in her first defense, as most expected. The rest of the top 5 is Amanda Lemos, on a two-fight win, but she got turned away by Jessica Andrade earlier this year, Andrade herself, also on a two-fight win streak, but her next bout is booked for Flyweight, and Marina Rodriguez, who most recently lost to Lemos.

RIZIN

Rizin Fighting Federation had a landmark 2022, not just because they held three events called Rizin Landmark. They surpassed 34 numbered events, the benchmark Pride Fighting Championships set before they ceased operations. Rizin also saw The Match in 2022, finally pitting Japan’s handsome boy kickboxers, Tenshin Nasukawa and Takeru Segawa, against each other. Floyd Mayweather also returned to collect a paycheck and embarrass a homegrown star, this time Mikuru Asakura was the victim.

Rizin also put on a Grand Prix between top Atomweights, which has primarily been a vehicle for Seika Izawa to submit people. As is proud tradition in Japanese MMA, very few title fights took place, with a mere four championship bouts taking place in 2022. The aforementioned Seika Izawa finally won the Atomweight crown after beating Ayaka Hamasaki in a rematch of their non-title New Year’s Eve 2021 contest. Roberto de Souza defended the Lightweight title against Johnny Case, and the Featherweight title was fought over twice. Juntaro Ushiku beat Yutaka Saito in April, but then lost the belt to Kleber Koike Erbst in October.

Of course, the biggest thing for Rizin was the grandiose New Year’s Eve mega event cross over inter-promotional clash with Bellator. Seika Izawa won the Super Atomweight Grand Prix in a contentious decision, and Rizin went 0-5, including their Featherweight and Lightweight champions, Kleber Koike Erbst and Roberto Satoshi Souza, losing to Bellator stars. Tough break to end the year. At least Manny Pacquiao came out to say he’s going to fight an unannounced Japanese star next year.

Bellator MMA

Bellator’s 2022 was decent. They finally completed the Light Heavyweight Grand Prix and most of the Bantamweight Grand Prix has been fought, setting up 2023 for a tournament finale. Most impressively, all of the injury replacements happened prior to the beginning of the tournament, which is truly a sign that Bellator and Scott Coker have been blessed by Moosin, God of Martial Arts.

A handful of titles changed hands, most notably Patricio Pitbull wresting back control of the Featherweight crown from AJ McKee after an exceedingly uneventful performance by the then-undefeated rising star. Liz Carmouche captured gold with a controversial stoppage victory over Juliana Velasquez in April, but silenced any doubters with a far more decisive submission win in the December rematch. Gegard Mousasi’s attempt to remain the king of the middleweight UFC cast-offs came to an end when he lost his 185 lb title to Johnny Eblen through the use of the most devious technique known to man: wrestling. The final title change came thundering out of the mountains of Dagestan, as Usman Nurmagomedov defeated Patricky Pitbull for the Lightweight title in a one-sided affair (What is it about Dagestan Man whomping a Brazilian for a title this year?).

Next year has some interesting things planned. Ryan Bader will look to turn back the last gasp of the Last Emperor as he defends his Heavyweight title against Fedor Emelianenko in the Russian’s alleged retirement match.

Yoel Romero, fresh off back to back wins over a retiring Melvin Manhoef and a man who wears temporary Arby’s tattoos, is getting a Light Heavyweight title shot against Vadim Nemkov. Never mind, Nemkov is out of the fight with an injury.

Johnny Eblen will make his first defense of the 185 lb title against Anatoly Tokov, a man on a 7-fight Bellator win streak, the most recognizable names being former champ Alexander Shlemenko in 2018 and master of the slam KO, Gerald Harris, in 2019. Don’t try to pretend you know who Sharaf Davlatmurodov or Hracho Darpinyan are, I just made up those names.

Yaroslav Amasov, having returned from defending his homeland against a literal invading army, will defend his Welterweight championship against a man he beat once before, interim champ Logan Storley. A Lightweight Grand Prix has also been announced, and god do I love a Grand Prix. As stated previously, the Bantamweight Grand Prix should wrap up some time in 2023 as interim champ Raufeon Stots takes on Patchy Mix in what should be an exciting affair, while injured champ Sergio Pettis will look to take on the winner at some point, pending his body not falling apart.

PFL

The Professional Fighters League looked to be having a good 2022 season. Anthony Pettis had rebounded from his bad 2021 season with an early win, Kayla Harrison was steamrolling opponents, things were looking up. Then PFL decided to announce the dumbest thing in the world - their championship finale event was going to be a PPV. Not even a budget event, somewhere in the neighborhood of $20, but a full on PPV costing over $50.

Things went downhill from there. Anthony Pettis got beat twice in a row by Stevie Ray, knocking him out of championship contention. Rory MacDonald got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by the #7 seed, replacement Dilano Taylor. Worst of all, Antonio Carlos Jr, beloved by all as Shoeface, had to withdraw before the playoffs began with an injury. The finale was even worse. Taylor and eventual Welterweight champ Sadibou Sy had a plodding, interminable fight that saw nothing happen over 25 minutes. Most of the other title bouts were quick and violent finishes, but didn’t necessarily have the grandiose feel of a title fight between the two very best competitors in a given division.

Then, came the main event. Kayla Harrison, undefeated in MMA, Olympic gold medalist, a pure force of domination, going up against a woman she’d beaten twice before, the hard hitting Larissa Pacheco. It was a foregone conclusion. Pacheco is good, at least against the other “lightweights” PFL corrals into the SmartCage, but against Harrison, she’d struggled. This time, though, things had changed. Pacheco didn’t defend every takedown, but she stuffed enough, and even for the attempts that succeeded, Larissa made Harrison pay with hammerfists and punches. She was active off her back, while Kayla made almost no effort to posture for ground and pound or look for submissions. After 25 minutes, in the company’s biggest event, their

biggest star had lost, putting a damper on possible interpromotional mega fights with Amanda Nunes or Cris Cyborg (Though, to be realistic, the Nunes fight would never happen, and even before Pacheco’s win, it seemed unlikely that Harrison would have a lot to offer Cyborg).

What will 2023 bring for PFL? Probably more former UFC fighters winning titles. Of the six champions in 2022, four had at least one bout in the UFC, the group going a combined 7-10 inside the Octagon. It also looks like 2023 will see PFL introduce a Women’s Featherweight division. It’s unclear how many of the Lightweight division will drop down to avoid getting punched in the head by Larissa Pacheco, but I expect that number to be greater than zero.

ONE Championship

ONE had a lot of big things going on in 2022. The ill-fated attempt to bring in more American eyeballs with tape delayed cards airing on TNT was gone, now it’s all about supremely stuffed events airing on Amazon Prime. ONE put on 5 such events, which is impressive since they only started in August 2022. ONE also either started, ended, or entirely ran three Grand Prixes in 2022 - Featherweight Kickboxing concluding with Chingiz Allazov defeating Sittichai Sitsongpeenong via decision. The Flyweight Muay Thai tournament began in 2022, and was set to conclude, but first injuries required the finale to be rescheduled, and then, hilariously, both finalists missed weight, disqualifying both men from competing for the Flyweight Grand Prix championship. Being a four man affair, the Heavyweight Kickboxing Grand Prix was much simpler, as it just resulted in Roman Kryklia knocking out whoever was put in front of him.

ONE had over 30 title fights in 2022, but you have to remember that they have MMA, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and now submission grappling divisions in multiple weight classes. For me, personally, the most important title bouts were John fucking Lineker defeating Bibiano Fernandes, Demetrious Johnson getting revenge over Adriano Moraes, and Anatoly Malykhin punching Reinier de Ridder’s face into bits. Honorable mention to Thanh Le doing the same to Garry Tonon, because grapplers who have no plan besides “try for bad takedown, shrug if do not work” getting whomped is the height of mixed martial arts. For Chatri Sityodtong, the only bouts worth mentioning are Angela Lee besting Stamp Fairtex, Christian Lee beating Ok Rae Yoon, and Christian Lee beating Kiamrian Abbasov, because anything for the horrid Lee Children.

Early predictions at ONE’s 2023 looks to be promising. More Amazon Prime cards, stuffed to bursting with title fights, including the trilogy bout between DJ and Moraes, a rematch between John Lineker and Fabricio Andrade for the currently vacant “Bantamweight” title, plus more kickboxing, submission grappling, Muay Thai, and even some mixed rules bouts. And of course, Rodtang, always more Rodtang.

Invicta FC

Invicta’s 2022 saw the usual level of upheaval in its championship scene. Three new champions were crowned, and two champions vacated their titles to sign with other promotions. Featherweight has been dormant since Pam Sorenson left for Bellator in 2021. Taneisha Tennant has held down Bantamweight, and even notched a successful title defense in July. Karina Rodriguez defended her Flyweight crown against the woman she beat to win the vacant belt, Daiana Torquato in March, but then left for Bellator in July. Emily Ducote defended the Strawweight title in May against Alesha Zappitella, but dropped the belt for the UFC in June. Valesca Machado claimed the vacant 115 lb title by winning a one-night tournament in November, and has thus far stayed under the Invicta banner in the intervening month and a half. Atomweight has long been Invicta’s premier division, mostly because it’s the only major game in the US for the teensiest of fighters. Jessica Delboni won the title over Alesha Zappitella at the start of the year, but lost the belt to Jillian DeCoursey in September. That’s one title changing hands inside the cage for the entire year.

It’s impossible to guess at what Invicta will be able to do in the future as their roster gets picked over by larger organizations. Currently, January is scheduled to feature Taneisha Tennant defending her title against Talita Bernardo, and the Flyweight title’s vacancy will be no more once Kristina Williams and Ketlen Souza face off. Beyond that, nobody can say for sure who will be an Invicta fighter.