Magomed Ankalaev has cleared the air following his split draw against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 282.
Ankalaev and Blachowicz stepped up on short notice to save the UFC 282 card. They fought for the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. The title was vacated by Jiří Procházka, who suffered a shoulder injury while preparing for a planned rematch with Glover Teixeira.
Ankalaev vs. Blachowicz went the distance, and most media members had Ankalaev winning the fight. Ultimately, the judges were split and no new titleholder was crowned. Now, it’ll be Teixeira and Jamahal Hill fighting for the vacant 205-pound gold at UFC 283.
After the fight, Joe Rogan interviewed Ankalaev, who had a translator with him. At one point, the translator claimed Ankalaev said this could be his last fight in the UFC due to poor judging. Ankalaev has since taken to his Twitter account to say the quote was mistranslated.
I wanna clear something up, what I said after the fight was I don’t want to fight in this city anymore because of the horrible judging, I did not say anything about I don’t wanna fight in the UFC.
I wanna thank @danawhite and @Mickmaynard2 for the opportunity
— Magomed Ankalaev (@AnkalaevM) December 11, 2022
“I wanna clear something up, what I said after the fight was I don’t want to fight in this city anymore because of the horrible judging, I did not say anything about I don’t wanna fight in the UFC. I wanna thank Dana White and Mick Maynard for the opportunity. I fought my heart out today, there is no excuse, but I had a compromised knee, it wasn’t my best performance, but I know I won the fight. Thank you Dana White and the UFC for giving me this opportunity.”
During the UFC 282 post-fight press conference, White made it clear that he wasn’t too thrilled over the main event.
“The main event was terrible. I started to zone out after three rounds.”
