A potential light heavyweight title eliminator between Jan
Blachowicz and Magomed
Ankalaev will go down at
UFC 282.
Advertisement
Promotion broadcast partner
ESPN reported that the contest is set for the UFC’s final
pay-per-view event of 2022. UFC 282 takes place on Dec. 10 at the
T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is expected to include a 205-pound
championship tilt pitting Jiri
Prochazka against Glover
Teixeira, though that bout has not been made official.
A former light heavyweight champion, Blachowicz returned to the win
column in his last outing at UFC on ESPN 36, when he defeated
Aleksandar
Rakic via third-round TKO when his opponent suffered a leg
injury. The WCA Fight Team product won nine of 10 promotional
appearances from October 2017 to March 2021, a stretch that saw the
Pole claim 205-pound gold with a second-round TKO of Dominick
Reyes and defend the crown with a five-round verdict against
reigning middleweight king Israel
Adesanya. He relinquished the belt to Glover
Teixeira in a second-round submission loss at UFC 267.
Ankalaev, meanwhile, has authored a nine-bout UFC winning streak to
establish himself as one of the top contenders in the division. The
30-year-old Dagestani is 2-0 in 2022, with a decision win over
Thiago
Santos at UFC Fight Night 203 and a second-round stoppage of
Anthony
Smith at UFC 277 to his credit. Ankalaev has lost just once in
18 professional outings overall, falling to Paul Craig
via third-round submission at UFC Fight Night 127 in March
2018.