Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev have the chance to end 2022 as the UFC light heavyweight champion, although it wasn’t supposed to be that way.
After Jiri Prochazka relinquished the title due to an injury — which forced him out of the UFC 282 main event with Glover Teixeira, Blachowicz and Ankalaev will meet for the vacant championship in the new headliner of the UFC’s final pay-per-view event of the year, which takes place Dec. 10 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Check out the new poster for the event below.
The undisputed LHW championship is on the line Your #UFC282 poster has arrived!
[ Dec 10 | @TMobileArena | Get your tickets: https://t.co/tdvQYyt2HS ] pic.twitter.com/z3tHuknBMC
— UFC (@ufc) November 29, 2022
After losing the title to Teixeira at UFC 267 in October 2021, Blachowicz earned a victory in his lone 2022 appearance — a third-round injury TKO win over Aleksandar Rakic in the main event of May’s UFC Vegas 54 event. Blachowicz was already set to face Ankalaev in the co-main event of UFC 282 in a perceived No. 1 contender bout before getting elevated to the main event.
Ankalaev has won nine straight inside the octagon en route to his first UFC title shot, which includes wins over Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith in 2022.
Check out the full UFC 282 card below.
Main Card (10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV)
Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev – vacant light heavyweight title fight
Paddy Pimblett vs. Jared Gordon
Robbie Lawler vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
Dricus Du Plessis vs. Darren Till
Bryce Mitchell vs. Ilia Topuria
Preliminary Card (8 p.m. ET on ESPN2, ESPN+)
Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Chris Daukaus
Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Dalcha Lungiambula
Chris Curtis vs. Joaquin Buckley
Early Prelims (5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+, UFC Fight Pass)
Billy Quarantillo vs. Alexander Hernandez
Ovince Saint Preux vs. Antonio Trocoli
T.J. Brown vs. Erik Silva
Vinicius Salvador vs. Daniel Da Silva
Cameron Saaiman vs. TBD