Top five UFC fights in 2022 featuring Leon Edwards title win

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The UFC has now wrapped up for 2022 after another enthralling year of fights. With seven new champions at six different weight divisions, new fighters entering the scene and quickly making a name for themselves and others finally proving themselves to the MMA world with upset victories, the sport continues to thrive in what has been an incredible few years for the UFC.

There’s a lot of reasons that combat sports fans have quickly fallen in love with the UFC, especially over the last six years, and it’s not just because of the colourful personalities within the sport. It helps having the likes of Brock Lesnar, Jon Jones, Michael Bisping, Conor McGregor, and most recently Paddy Pimblett, but it’s the incredible fights in the octagon that millions will tune in to watch.

There’s been a fundamental issue in boxing for a long time now in that there’s too many promoters. This has lead to two parties not being able to come to a deal for a fight between the better boxers, as they continue to make millions fight lesser opposition. In the UFC, that simply does not happen. The best will fight the best, with all the top names in each weight cartegory fighting one another eventually if they stick around for long enough. This has given fans some incredible fights over the years, and 2022 has been no exception. 

Express Sport has have taken a look and counted down the top five fights from these past 12 months. As they include championship belts changing sides, highlight knockouts and memorable brawls.

5) Alex Pereira def. Israel Adesanya (c): Israel Adesanya’s dominance in the middleweight division had been incredible. He had literally wiped out the division, so much so that it became boring… until Alex Pereira joined the UFC. The Brazilian had previously beaten Adesanya twice in kickboxing, including knocking him out in a devastating fashion, and that’s what he did yet again to shock the MMA world in the final round of the fight in November.

4) Khamzat Chimeav def. Gilbert Burns: The man who many see as UFC’s next great superstar, Chimeav was given his toughest opponent to date in top five ranked Burns, which lead to one of the great lightweight fights of all-time. Chimeav has dominated everyone he’s come up against, except for the Brazilian who gave him as good as he got.

3) Dustin Poirier def. Michael Chandler: As soon as this fight was made, everyone knew it was going to be an absolute blockbuster. Chandler’s explosiveness and unpredictability matched with Poirier’s high motor lead to an incredible back and forth scraps, with both men showing thsmelves in a good light before Poirier got the late submission. 

2) Leon Edwards def. Kamaru Usman (c): Definitely the one which shocked UFC fans the most, Kamaru Usman was on the way to being considered one of the greatest MMA of all-time. And whilst he still might be, Leon Edwards stole the show that night. Usman had dominated the fight, and looked to be cruising to his 16th straight win before Edwards landed a headkick that had the Nigerian out cold. 

1) Jiri Prochazka def. Glover Teixiera (c): In just his third UFC fight, Prochazka showed why he is the future of the light heavyweight division in an incredible back and forth with the legendary Teixiera. You could make a strong case that Teixiera put in one of the best performances of his career, being close to a decision victory, but the Czech continued to look for a finish and finally got it in the final round locking in a devastating choke hold.

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