Michael Bisping wants to see Jan Blachowicz fight Israel Adesanya at 185 pounds.
UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping is on board with the idea of a rematch between Jan Blachowicz and Israel Adesanya at middleweight.
Blachowicz, the former UFC light heavyweight champion, is the only man to defeat Adesanya in the UFC and would gladly welcome a rematch with ‘The Last Stylebender’ at 185 pounds.
Bisping thinks it’s a great matchup and one Adesanya will undoubtedly be interested in running back after coming up short against Blachowicz in his light heavyweight debut at UFC 259.
“For Jan Blachowicz, this is interesting because for Izzy, he’s going to want the rematch,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMA Fighting). “This is the only person to beat him, but now it’s a very dangerous fight for him at 185. If you think about Jan Blachowicz and the first fight with Izzy, it was kind of even on the feet. Both guys had some success. Jan Blachowicz is really, really good at checking leg kicks and in the first fight he would check the leg kick and then fire back with a couple of shots, a good jab, a good left hook that was catching him a lot. And then in rounds four and five he switched it up, he got some takedowns, and he was the only person really so far in Izzy’s run in the UFC that was able to take him down and hold him down. You’ve got to think a lot of that was because of the weight.”
“One thing for sure, he will not be as strong,” Bisping added. “So could he take him down? Did strength play a factor? I think it was more timing and technique that put him down but strength does come into it. He won’t be as explosive and he won’t be as powerful, but one thing he will be is faster. That’s a fact. When you lose some of that extra bit of flab he’s got and a little bit of muscle, he will be faster. So that will help him. That will help him on the feet and help him with his reflexes. So it’s very, very interesting.”
This might be a fight Adesanya is interested in, but only after he defends his middleweight title against Alex Pereira, whom he is expected to face at a later date only the champ is aware of. UFC president Dana White has promised the fight will be ‘batsh-t nuts’.