Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Jan Blachowicz captured the light heavyweight title by smashing top contender Dominick Reyes at the UFC 253 pay-per-view (PPV) event earlier this month on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi, the same card that saw Israel Adesanya defend his middleweight strap against 185-pound bruiser Paulo Costa.
Since UFC “super fights” are all the rage these days, there has been talk of having Adesanya move up in weight to challenge for not one, but two additional titles, unless “The Last Stylebender” abandons his quest for multiple belts to instead settle his score with pound-for-pound great Jon Jones.
Either way, Blachowicz (27-8) doesn’t sound too worried.
“He can try, but he’s gonna go back to his division really fast if he’s gonna do this,” Blachowicz told Submission Radio. “And when he meets me, it’s gonna be the same like against (Luke) Rockhold. Everybody thinks they know me. They think I’m an easy fighter. But when cage, Octagon door closes, they feel my power. There is a UFC game on Playstation. So, if he chooses me in this game, then he’s gonna be the best in the 205 division. But not in real life. No way.”
Blachowicz creamed Rockhold at UFC 239 in summer 2019.
The Polish power puncher, now 37, has won eight of his last nine and should be considered one of the top fighters in the game, but Blachowicz knows that no light heavyweight resume will be complete without a win over Jones, who outside of a questionable disqualification loss, has never been defeated.
“Yeah, I got the belt, but I just… I just want to beat him, you know, because he never lost,” Blachowicz said. “Just one loss, but that was some disqualification, so it doesn’t count. So, I want to be the one who beats him in the 205 division. That would be nice to be the first one who beat him. He just wants to escape against the legendary polish power, that’s why he go to heavyweight. He’s afraid of the legendary polish power. This is the answer.”
Jones is expected to make his heavyweight debut in 2021.