Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz has named the Russian president Vladimir Putin as the one man he would like to fight.
Jan Blachowicz will be returning to the competition for the first time after losing his title. Ahead of his upcoming bout against Aleksandar Rakic at UFC Fight Night: Blachowicz vs. Rakic, the ‘Polish Power’ connected with The Post’s Scott Fontana for a session of Q&A.
Starting off with conversations about his life-sized model, title loss to Glover Teixeira, and his next fight against Rakic, the 39-year-old was asked an interesting question given the political circumstances.
Blachowicz was asked if he could “fight any person who has ever lived”, who would he pick. The Pole took the opportunity to take a jab at the man heading the attack on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin.
“[Vladimir] Putin. I would show him what [the] whole world wants to show him, where is his place.”
Jan Blachowicz supports Ukraine
Earlier in February, Blachowicz had posted a Ukrainian flag on his Instagram as a sign of protest against the invasion by Russian military forces. Poland shares a border with Ukraine and the two countries have developed a stronger bond since the attack.
‘The Polish Power’ talked about the relationship between the neighbors and shared his thoughts on the ongoing developments.
“Whole Poland like that because you never know what’s going to happen. Whole lot of people from Ukraine escape to Poland. We try to help them. They live in our houses. We help them with how we can. Every day, you wake up, and first thing that you do, you check [the] internet [for] what’s happened, when it was the first week.
“Now, it’s people maybe [are] not used to that but don’t panic like in the first week of war. When you hear [a] weird sound, everybody [would] wake up and watch from the window what’s happened. But Ukraine, they good, they do great job. Nobody expected that they were gonna defend so tough. Russia, they kill children, women over there. They are not soldiers; they are murderers, what they [are] doing over there. I hope that this madness will stop.” (h/t NY Post)
While it’s unlikely he’ll get the dream matchup, his intentions behind the statement are clear. You can watch Jan Blachowicz’s comeback fight this May 14 against Aleksandar Rakic.