The UFC's Octagon played host to a number of dramatic and surprising developments in 2022, further cementing the fact that anything can happen in a sport this dangerous and unpredictable.
Among the many memorable moments recorded over the past 12 months were a pair of fifth-round upset knockouts in title fights, which made overnight heroes out of new welterweight champion Leon Edwards and middleweight king Alex Pereira.
This calendar year also saw a changing of the guard atop the mythical pound-for-pound rankings as featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski continued to etch himself in the history books by extending his memorable title reign.
Our panel of CBS Sports experts sat down to have their vote for which fighter enjoyed the most memorable year. Let's take a look at the final results.
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Winner: Alex Pereira 3-0 (def. Bruno Silva, Sean Strickland & Israel Adesanya)
It's crazy to think that the accomplished Brazilian striker has only been fighting in the UFC for 14 months. But the former two-division Glory Kickboxing champion enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top of the UFC 185-pound rankings, in part fueled by his history of having twice defeated Adesanya in kickboxing, including one time by come-from-behind knockout in 2017. Amazingly, Pereira would repeat the latter feat in just his fourth UFC fight (and eighth professional MMA bout overall) when he rallied to dramatically finish Adesanya in Round 5 of their title bout at UFC 281 in November.
Pereira, who relied on his power and intangible toughness to offset his lack of true MMA experience, became the second fighter in as many years to capture UFC gold from Glover Teixeira's upstart gym in Connecticut. The victory was also Pereira's third in 2022 after outpointing Bruno Silva in March and violently finishing top contender Sean Strickland in less than one round in July. Pereira previously went 2-1 to open his MMA career in 2015 before taking four years off to focus on kickboxing. But he's 5-0 since his 2020 return, including four knockouts, and appears headed toward a possible big-money rematch (and fourth overall meeting) against Adesanya, who was previously unbeaten at middleweight in MMA.
Honorable Mentions
Alexander Volkanovski 2-0 (def. Chang-Sung Jung & Max Holloway)
Make no mistake, the native of Australia had about as dominant a year as any fighter could hope for in 2022, making a pair of one-sided defenses of his 145-pound title. Volkanovski, 34, entered the year in contention for the title as best P4P fighter and was universally praised for his technical prowess and fight IQ. But it was the evolution of his aggression that ultimately separated him from the pack. Volkanovski landed one power shot after another in stopping "The Korean Zombie" at UFC 273 in April, when Jung replaced an injured Holloway. He then left no doubt in his July trilogy bout at UFC 276 where he bloodied and bruised Holloway over five rounds -- a far cry from the pair of disputed decisions that opened their rivalry. Volkanovski, who will attempt to win a world title in a second division at lightweight in 2023, improved to 12-0 since his UFC debut in 2016 while extending his overall win streak to 22 fights.
Weili Zhang 2-0 (def. Joanna Jedrzejczyk & Carla Esparza)
What a difference a year made for the UFC's first Chinese-born champion. Zhang had previously seen her women's strawweight title reign come to an end in 2021 when she dropped a pair of fights to two-time champion Rose Namajunas, including a disastrous first-round knockout via head kick. But Zhang went back to the drawing board to round out her game, working on her wrestling with former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo and eventually her boxing with Filipino legend Nonito Donaire. What she produced in 2022 was a renaissance campaign, highlighted by a pair of stoppage victories over two divisional legends to start a second title reign at 115 pounds. Zhang sent Jedrzejczyk, the longest reigning champion in strawweight history, to retirement in June following one of the year's most dynamic knockouts via spinning backfist. The fight was a rematch of their 2020 brawl, which is widely considered the greatest action fight in women's MMA history. Zhang then dominated the two-time champion Esparza in a second-round submission at UFC 281 in November. At 33, Zhang is only getting better as she continues to carve out her place in the history books.
Others receiving votes: Leon Edwards, Francis Ngannou, Aljamain Sterling and Islam Makhachev
