At UFC 282, on December 11 at the popular T-Mobile Arena, light heavyweights Russian Magomed Ankalaev and Polish Jan Blachowicz will meet in the co-main event. The bout is planned to start at 06:00 UK time.
At this stage of his career, Magomed Ankalaev is not practically inferior to Jan in anything and is ahead of him in many parameters due to the age gap. The upright battle threatens Blachowicz with considerable damage because of the Russian’s sharp work: he will dissect him with jabs, take advantage of his speed, and stop him with kicks. Jan’s task will be to implement his game plan quickly – to work tightly on the body, lock kicks, and all sorts of techniques to slow his opponent down, otherwise, he’ll have a very hard time in the next rounds.
The contender from Russia worked his way up in mixed martial arts through combat sambo, where he was awarded the title of Master of Sports. Later Magomed became the Russian and World MMA champion (amateurs) and, starting his professional career, took the WFCA title and successfully defended it. The 30-year-old is currently riding a nine-fight winning streak, the most recent of which came this past July over top-5-ranked Anthony Smith. Before that, the Russian took on Thiago “Marreta” Santos, Volkan “No Time” Oezdemir, and Nikita “The Miner” Krylov. In his current condition, Ankalaev is ready for 5 rounds of the active fight, he will make his third appearance in 2022, he has no problems with stamina and motivation, so in the title fight, we expect a full, loaded version of him, with all the ensuing consequences.
The Pole is a former amateur kickboxer, a regional champion in that discipline, and Muay Thai. Trying to find the perfect martial art he competed in grappling tournaments, then in BJJ, he won the black belt, then switched to MMA, winning the KSW one-day tournaments in 2007, 2008, and 2010, then winning the undisputed league title. After winning several prizes in fierce fights under the UFC banner, he took the vacant bantamweight belt and successfully defended it, later passing the baton to Glover Teixeira. Blachowicz is on a convincing 5-win winning streak, defeating Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya, Dominick “The Devastator” Reyes, and Corey “Overtime” Anderson before being demolished by Glover Teixeira. After recovering, “John” had a far from the convincing performance against Aleksandar “Rocket” Rakic, but his opponent’s injury paved the way for him to the title race.
Age – 30;
Height – 1.90;
Weight – 93;
Reach – 1.91;
Statistics – 17-1-0;
Wins – 9 KO, 0 Submissions, 8 Decisions;
Losses – 0 KO, 1 Submission, 0 Decisions.
Age – 39;
Height – 1.88;
Weight – 93;
Reach – 1.98;
Statistics – 29-9-0;
Wins – 9 KO, 9 Submissions, 11 Decisions;
Loses – 2 KO, 2 Submissions, 5 Decisions.
Where will this fixture be played?
The event will take place at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Which bookmaker has the best odds for this game?
We recommend checking out the odds for the UFC 282: Magomed Ankalaev vs Jan Blachowicz at 1xBet.