Magomed Ankalaev seemed to have done enough to capture the vacant UFC light heavyweight title over Jan Blachowicz last night (Sat., Dec. 10, 2022) at UFC 282 live on ESPN+ pay-per-view (PPV) from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, but the judges ultimately deemed the main event a split draw (official scorecard HERE).
In addition to the light heavyweight headliner, UFC 282 spit out a collection of memorable finishes and impressive performances. Check them out below and let us know which one stood out the most:
- Cameron Saaiman proved that age is just a number as the 21-year-old made good on his Octagon debut with a third-round TKO stoppage over Steven Koslow
- T.J. Brown spoiled the UFC debut of Contender Series standout Erik Silva with a late submission (highlights HERE)
- Featherweight juggernaut Billy Quarantillo scored another comeback victory when he stopped former lightweight contender Alexander Hernandez with a second-round TKO
- Middleweight veteran Chris Curtis scored another Octagon knockout when he viciously stopped Joaquin Buckley in the second round (see it HERE)
- Edmen Shahbazyan finally returned to the middleweight win column with a blistering second-round TKO win over Dalcha Lungiambula
- Heavyweight contender Jairzinho Rozenstruik made quick work of Chris Daukaus with a 23-second knockout (watch HERE)
- Raul Rosas Jr. became the youngest fighter to compete inside of the Octagon at 18 years of age and ended up smoking bantamweight Jay Perrin with a first-round submission
- Ilia Topuria handed Bryce Mitchell his first professional loss with an impressive second-round submission (highlights HERE)
- Darren Till tasted another submission loss when Dricus du Plessis scored a third-round rear-naked choke
- Welterweight contender Santiago Ponzinibbio scored a come-from-behind TKO finish over late-replacement Alex Morono (see it HERE)
- Paddy Pimblett narrowly escaped Jared Gordon in an entertaining, but very controversial lightweight co-main event
In order to sift through the action and see which fighters took home a cool $50,000, we take a closer look at the official UFC 282 post-fight bonus winners below:
Fight of the Night: Dricus du Plessis vs. Darren Till
Performance of the Night: Santiago Ponzinibbio
Performance of the Night: Ilia Topuria
Performance of the Night: Raul Rosas Jr.
Performance of the Night: Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Performance of the Night: Edmen Shahbazyan
Performance of the Night: Chris Curtis
Performance of the Night: Billy Quarantillo
Performance of the Night: T.J. Brown
Performance of the Night: Cameron Saaiman
For complete UFC 282 results and coverage click here.