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Break out the bubbly!
Newly-crowned Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, who captured the crown vacated by Jon Jones with a commanding performance against Dominick Reyes, received a hero’s welcome upon return to his native Poland.
Blachowicz is the second Pole to be crowned UFC champion behind former strawweight queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk, who had nothing but praise for her fellow countryman.
“You know, it’s a long journey for me, but I’m finally at the top,” Blachowicz said at the UFC 253 post-fight press conference (via MMA Junkie). “It’s an amazing feeling. There are no words. How to describe this how I feel right now. My mind is in different place right now, somewhere into space.”
His victory in the UFC 253 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event puts Blachowicz in line to defend his 205-pound title against the winner of Glover Teixeira vs. Thiago Santos, who collide on Nov. 7 at APEX in Las Vegas, presumably on ESPN+ (details here).
“Now I want to celebrate a little bit,” Blachowicz continued. “First celebrating, soon I’m going to be a father, so I’d like to focus on that also. And after that we can talk about next opponent and first defense. But now I just want to celebrate. I have to come back to Poland, hug my mom, see my father and drink some beer with him.”
For more results and fallout from UFC 253 click here.