Magomedov Ankalaev and Jan Blachowicz draw in a competitive five-round fight with neither being crowned the new UFC Light Heavyweight champion at UFC 282.
With UFC 282 just weeks away disaster struck. When Light Heavyweight champion Jiří Procházka announced an injury that forced him to withdraw from his scheduled title defence.
With the card in jeopardy, it fell on the co-main event to take centre stage. A complete u-turn the two Light Heavyweights competing in the secondary bout would now headline the show. Upping the stakes once more the championship belt would be on the line over five rounds.
The Fight
In a fight where each man had moments, it surprisingly ended in a split draw. One judge scored it 48-47, to Jan. Another scored it 48-46 to Magomedov Ankalaev and the final and deciding judge called it 47-47.
In a rare event in a fight, let alone a title fight. It will go down as a controversial call. Even Jan Blachowicz said he didn’t win in his post-fight speech.
Jan seemed to have scored well early. His leg kicks did tremendous damage in rounds two and three. Rounds four and five were to the favour of Ankalaev due to his clear grappling supremacy.
The controversy then falls into round one. With all three judges scoring the round in favour of Jan, others seem to disagree with this.
Still vacant, the Light Heavyweight crown remains unclaimed.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
