Change up in UFC 282 Card

December 10 was supposed to feature the championship rematch between Jiri Prochazka and challenger Glover Teixeira. However, those plans have changed due to a serious shoulder injury Prochazka suffered in training. Tim Simpson, Prochazka's manager, said "The shoulder got wrecked in a standard wrestling accident type of thing.You know how shoulders are, right? It pops out and a lot of the time, you pop it right back in. There was a wait and it popped out. And you never really know with a shoulder until you dig into it."

UFC president Dana White said the doctors told him that the injury is extensive. "This is the worst shoulder injury the doctors have seen in UFC history, It's really f***ing bad. His shoulder is very, very bad. He's going to have serious surgery that will require extensive rehab.” White told the media this week regarding the status of his light heavyweight champion. Due to these unforeseen events Prochazka was forced to vacate his championship gold. His challenger Glover Teixera was given the opportunity to challenge a new opponent which he declined. The reason Teixera declined seems to be he wanted to avenge his loss to Prochazka. The two originally met this past June in what may have been the fight of the year. Prochazka was able to execute a last second rare naked choke to claim the belt from Teixera. Dana White released a statement clarifying plans of his next PPV card "We offered Glover the fight [against Ankalaev]. For some reason, he didn't want the fight, so we had to move on. If we couldn't have the rematch, getting Ankalaev, who has the second-longest winning streak in light heavyweight history, and Blachowicz, who is the former champion, is really fortunate. It all fell into place for us as it often seems to do. But that's a great fight, too, and now it's for the full title." So, the new UFC 282 main event is Jan Blachowicz who is ranked No. 2 and Magomed Ankalaev No. 3 in the UFC's current light heavyweight rankings. Ankalaev is 18-1 overall and has won nine in a row in the UFC since his only career defeat, a triangle choke submission loss to Paul Craig on March 17, 2018, in London in his UFC debut. Blachowicz is the former UFC champion who lost his belt to Teixeira in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, at UFC 267 on Oct. 30, 2021. He returned to win one fight, defeating Aleksandar Rakic via TKO this past May. Dana White also announced his new co-main event is a lightweight fight between rising prospect Paddy Pimblett (19-3) and Jared Gordon (19-5). As they say the show must go on. Prochazka's injury was a massive one, but we will still get a banger of a card from UFC.