UFC 282 had a major shakeup on Wednesday and new the main card lineup has been revealed.
Last night, it was revealed that Jiri Prochazka suffered a serious shoulder injury and was forced to withdraw from his UFC 282 light heavyweight title defense against Glover Teixeira. The fight was set to be the main event but with him being out for likely a year, he decided to vacate the belt. The new main event will now see Jan Blachowicz take on Magomed Ankalaev for the vacant light heavyweight title.
Jan Blachowicz (29-9) is coming off a TKO win over Aleksandar Rakic in a fight the Austrian hurt his knee. Prior to that, he suffered a submission loss to Glover Teixeira to lose his light heavyweight title. He had defended the belt once as he defeated Israel Adesanya by decision and won the vacant title by knocking out Dominick Reyes.
Magomed Ankalaev (18-1) is riding a nine-fight win streak as after losing his debut with one second left to Paul Craig, he has been on a nice run. Last time out, he scored a TKO win over Anthony Smith. In his UFC career, he holds notable wins over Thiago Santos, Volkan Oezdemir, and Nikita Krylov among others.
The new co-main event of UFC 282 will see Paddy Pimblett take on Jared Gordon. Pimblett is a perfect 3-0 in the UFC and coming off a submission victory over Jordan Leavitt while Gordon is coming off a decision win over Leonardo Santos.
Also on the UFC 282 main card is a welterweight scrap between Robbie Lawler vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio. Bryce Mitchell will also take on Ilia Topuria with a fifth fight expected to be elevated to the main card.
UFC 282 main card
- Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev – vacant light heavyweight title
- Paddy Pimblett vs. Jared Gordon
- Robbie Lawler vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
- Bryce Mitchell vs. Ilia Topuria
- TBD vs. TBD
Rest of UFC 282
- Darren Till vs. Dricus Du Plessis
- Edmen Shabazyan vs. Dalcha Lungiambula
- Billy Quarantillo vs. Alexander Hernandez
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Chris Daukaus
- Erik Silva vs. TJ Brown
- Chris Curtis vs. Joaquin Buckley
- Daniel da Silva vs. Vinicius Salvador
- Ronnie Lawrence vs. Cameron Saaiman
- Jay Perrin vs. Raul Rosas Jr.
- Ovince Saint Preux vs. Antonio Trocoli
Will you be ordering the UFC 282 pay-per-view?