7 UFC Fights That Must Happen in 2022

A belated Happy New Year from the B/R combat sports team! 

2021 was definitely a win for MMA fans, and 2022 looks like it could be even better. Just skim through the fights already on the calendar: Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane, Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker II, Beneil Dariush vs. Islam Makhachev—the list goes on.

While we've already got some great fights to look forward to, we're just getting started on most fans' 2022 wish-lists. The year is rife with matchup possibilities, from strawweight to heavyweight, as stars like Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Jorge Masvidal and a long list of impressive champions are all poised to return to the cage. 

The MMA landscape will most likely have changed completely by spring. Things move fast in this sport. But here are the fights we're hoping to see while the year is still new, and the months ahead still glimmer with possibility.

Perhaps the most dramatic MMA moment of 2021 occurred at UFC 269, the promotion's penultimate event of the year, when Julianna Pena submitted the seemingly unbeatable Amanda Nunes to capture the bantamweight title. 

It was one of the biggest upsets in MMA history, and a victory Pena should feel proud of for the rest of her life. But for many fans, it wasn't quite enough to prove she was Nunes' better. The Brazilian, who also holds the featherweight title, had ruled over the bantamweight division for so long and thwarted so many tough challenges, that it was admittedly difficult not to wonder if she'd simply had a bad night at the office against Pena. Was it a fluke? Or is the former queen truly outmatched against her usurper?

The only way to answer those questions is to book a rematch. All signs point to it happening sometime early this year, but you never know in MMA.

At this point, Leon Edwards and Jorge Masvidal have a pretty long history. 

First, they came to blows backstage at a UFC event in London in 2019. Then, after more than two years of back-and-forth trash talk, they were finally booked for a sanctioned fight at UFC 269 in December. Then that fight fell through when Masvidal sustained an injury.

At this point, a matchup between Edwards and Masvidal doesn't actually make a ton of sense from a ranking standpoint. Masvidal, ranked No. 6 at welterweight, is riding back-to-back losses to the reigning champion Kamaru Usman, while the No. 3-ranked Edwards is riding a nine-fight win streak. But there is a score to be settled here.

Even in the unlikely event that Edwards and Masvidal decided they were willing to let it go, the fans wouldn't. We need to see it. Hopefully, we get to see it this year.

Glover Teixeira had a more memorable 2021 than just about any other fighter. After 21 fights in the UFC, and at a mystifying 42 years old, he defeated Poland's Jan Blachowicz to capture the promotion's storied light heavyweight title.

It was incredible moment for the Brazilian. Unfortunately, he now has to deal with a long list of lethal light heavyweights, starting with surging contender Jiri Prochazka, who is expected to get the next crack at the title. While Teixeira has proven to be a formidable foe for Father Time, he's going to have his hands full against the Czech knockout artist, who previously ruled of the Rizin Fighting Federation light heavyweight division. In fact, it's all but guaranteed that the champion will enter the cage as a noteworthy underdog. 

Then again, if there's any fighter who's proven he's capable of defying the odds it's Teixeira. We'll just have to wait and see.

Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway have an interesting rivalry. 

On paper, it doesn't look like much of a rivalry. Volkanovski won their first fight, in December of 2019, by unanimous decision, capturing the UFC featherweight title in the process. He then won a split decision in their immediate rematch, in July of 2020, moving to 2-0 against his Hawaiian foe. Yet both fights were very competitive, and the second was downright controversial, to the point that many fans consider Holloway the featherweight division's uncrowned king.

In the time since his second loss to Volkanovski, Holloway has picked up a pair of thrilling decision victories over top-flight foes in Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez. Those wins, when combined with his history with Volkanovski, make a trilogy the only logical choice. 

Who's the true king of the featherweights? Hopefully we get an answer in the first half of this year.

This might be the most important fight on the horizon right now. 

Neither Petr Yan nor Aljamain Sterling is a particularly big star, but their unfinished business is holding up the entire bantamweight division, which might be the best weight class in all of MMA at present.

Sterling and Yan's story dates back to UFC 259 in March 2021. Sterling challenged the Russian for the bantamweight strap in the first of three title fights on the stacked main card. Unfortunately, the fight ended in disaster when Yan blasted the challenger with an illegal knee in the fourth round. Sterling was unable to continue, meaning he won the fight, and more importantly the title, by disqualification. 

It was inconclusive as victories get, and a rematch has been of paramount importance ever since. Unfortunately, the UFC has had some difficulty making it happen, to the point that Yan was crowned the interim bantamweight champion after he defeated Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267 in October.

Sterling and Yan must now settle their score so the jam-packed bantamweight division can move on.

Conor McGregor is the biggest star in MMA. Nate Diaz, one of the chief rivals of the Irish star's career, might be the second biggest.

The pair first met in March of 2016, when Diaz handed McGregor his first UFC loss with a second-round submission. They collided in an immediate rematch in August of the same year. McGregor won that fight by hard-fought majority decision. 

A blockbuster trilogy bout between the two superstars has been an obvious choice ever since. Thus far, the UFC has been content to save it for a rainy day. However, Chael Sonnen recently posited that time could be running out for the trilogy, and he might be right.

McGregor is 33, and Diaz is 36. Neither man is ancient, but neither is young either. Both are also extremely wealthy, and seemingly have little financial impetus to fight. Both are also winless in their last two fights, with McGregor losing two-straight to Dustin Poirier at lightweight and Diaz riding setbacks to Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards at welterweight. 

Sure, this trilogy could still do big business for a few more years, but we don't want it to turn into a better-late-than-never situation. Better to strike well the iron's hot and book it as soon as possible.

Jon Jones is arguably the best fighter in MMA history, but that's an easy thing to forget.

The long-reigning light heavyweight champion vacated the division's throne after a split decision win over Dominick Reyes in February 2020. His plan at the time was to hike up to heavyweight in a bid for a new belt, but he hasn't fought since, due in part to legal issues outside the cage, and in part to a prolonged contract dispute in the UFC. The best years of his career are disappearing like sparks above a campfire and that's a definite shame considering his ability.

Hopefully, he gets back to doing what he does best in 2022. At this point, it really doesn't even matter who he fights. The important thing is that he fights.