2021 was a completely wild year for MMA, we saw some of the most savage fights between the most electric fighters (Gaethje v Chandler, Holloway v Kattar, Volkanovski v Ortega, Burgos v Barboza). We saw Kamaru Usman inch closer to overtaking GSP as the welterweight GOAT as he defended his title 3 times in 2021, with 2 finishes over top contenders, including being the first man to KO Masvidal. This also gave us some of the best UFC commentator booth reaction videos we’ve ever seen.
Israel Adesanya had another successful year defending his middleweight title, while the bantamweight division had a year of twists and turns. Petr Yan lost his title via DQ when he kneed a grounded Sterling in the head, we saw the return of former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, Yan v Sandhagen put on a POTY contender performance and Jose Aldo returns as a top contender even in 2021.
To top it all off, this happened through a global pandemic which continued to cause national lockdowns (hats off to Dana White for making the promotion’s fights happen anyway). I feel like I could go on and on, the point is, it was another insane year for MMA fans. 2022 has a big act to follow, but things just seem to be speeding up in MMA, so let’s crack into the predictions which Speak MMA have for the year ahead.
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1. Another UFC division will get added to the promotion
In the past, UFC fighters like Dustin Poirier, Kevin Lee & Stipe Miocic have called for UFC to add another weight division to its promotion. The main calls have been for a 165 lbs division or a 245 lbs division, but there have been other ‘suggestions’ from the UFC roster in the past too, depending on which weight fighters believe they would perform most optimally at.
Dana White hasn’t budged yet on any of these calls. However, 2021 saw UFC’s record being hit for total in-fight time, beating any year in the promotion’s history. With UFC’s appetite for putting on fights seeming to increase, it makes sense than 2022 would see a similar upward trend in number of fights being put on. If this is the case, then Dana White might consider adding another division to his promotion.
Some, like ESPN, have speculated that it may be a woman’s atomweight division. However, Speak MMA believe it will be a men’s 245 division. Dana White has always favoured the traditional heavyweight fights. All title fights which are featured on the same UFC card are ordered by weight, meaning that the main event of a multi-title fight card will always be the fight at the higher weight limit, even if a more popular title fight is on the same card, at a lower weight.
MMA fans are becoming more educated, and a lot of them (including the Speak MMA team) prefer the technical battles that are more common in the lighter weight classes. However, there’s something about monstorous men slugging it out with one another that will always entertain the people. If it entertains the people, it means they will buy the PPVs, which means more revenue for UFC.
2. Amanda Nunes Will Never Be The Same
Amanda Nunes is arguably the women’s MMA GOAT. She has defeated anyone who is anyone in women’s MMA (Cyborg, Rousey, Tate, Holm, Shevchenko, De Randamie) and she was the 1st women’s double champ. However, in one of the greatest upsets in MMA history, she was defeated by Julianna Pena at UFC 269.
We’ve seen champions in the past topple off their high form once they lost their title (Cody Garbrandt, Chris Weidman, Luke Rockhold, Anderson Silva). It’s almost like they lack the motivation to go through the sacrifice it takes to get back to being a champion, or, their confidence gets shattered by the loss and it never returns.
Amanda Nunes can now go 1 of 2 ways. She can either get straight back on the horse, and return to being the dominant double champ that she once was, or, she can fail to reclaim her previous form. Given the fact that Nunes must have had retirement somewhere in her mind (she’s accomplished everything there is to accomplish & she’s fought all the greats already, so there are limited challenges ahead of her), we think that this is unfortunately the end of Amanda Nunes’ dominance in MMA.
While she may continue to compete against top women’s MMA fighters, she will suffer losses in 2022, and she won’t reclaim the bantamweight crown.
3. Jon Jones Will Become Heavyweight Champion
It’s almost impossible to write about Jon Jones without some reference to his ‘out of Octagon’ behaviour, but we’re going to do our best as we only have so many words here.
Jones is a born winner, whatever the opponent and whatever the circumstance he finds himself in a fight, he finds a way to adapt and win. His only “loss” was a DQ loss to Matt Hamill, when he was in full mount on his opponent.
He has been preparing for a move to heavyweight for over a year now, and it’s likely that his return fight will be a title challenge. This is due to his star power, and career long dominance at light heavyweight.
Regardless of whether he has to find a way around Ngannou’s raw punching power, Cyril Gane’s high IQ technical fighting, or Stipe Miocic’s all round MMA game, Jones will download the necessary details he needs (mid-fight) and secure himself a heavyweight title belt.
4. Conor McGregor Will Get A Title Shot
To make the understatement of the year (on day 6 of 2022) Conor is a global superstar. It’s why he can pretty much demand whatever he wants from UFC, and he has done in the past (demanding a chance at becoming the 1st ever UFC double champ, demanding that they allow him to fight Floyd Mayweather, demanding that no other title fight can be on the same card that he is fighting on so he doesn’t have to share PPV points, the list could go on…)
So it’s not beyond the realms of reality that he could demand a title shot against Charles Oliviera, if he’s still champion by the time Conor wants to fight. Alternatively, if Kamaru Usman retires sometime in 2022, then Conor might fancy his chances against a weltweight contender for the vacant belt, making him a 3 division champion.
5. Kamaru Usman Will Retire
This leads us on nicely to our final prediction for 2022, that Kamaru Usman will retire.
Kamaru has previously said in interviews that he doesn’t want to be in this game forever, and that he wants to spend time with his daughter, and be present as she grows up. This is something he doesn’t believe he can do if he is fighting.
So, combining this with the fact that he’s had the best year of his career in 2021, defending his title 3 times, being the 1st man to KO Jorge Masvidal, and winning 2021’s fighter of the year at the MMA Awards, 2022 would be a perfect time for him to call time on his incredible career.
He has taken out every top contender convincingly, cementing himself as the true champion of the welterweight division. He is only 1 win away from equalling the record for the longest win streak in the UFC, 16 wins, held by former middleweight champion, Anderson Silva.
If he desires this kind of eternal glory, then he may fight a maximum of 2 times in 2022, in order to beat Silva’s record, and then retire for good.
