Advertisement
Advertisement
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Jan Blachowicz celebrates after his victory over Israel Adesanya in their light heavyweight title fight at UFC 259 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photos: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

UFC 267: Jan Blachowicz sees Israel Adesanya rematch, but ‘he needs to beat two or three guys’ at 205 pounds

  • Light heavyweight champ says he’ll give Adesanya another chance at winning his belt, ‘but not immediately’
  • Polish veteran predicts ‘KO by hands’ against Glover Teixeira on October 30 in Abu Dhabi

Israel Adesanya may have returned to rule the middleweight division, but Jan UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz thinks they will cross paths again down the road.

The 38-year-old Pole (28-8) made his first successful title defence in Las Vegas seven months ago against the previously-undefeated Adesanya (21-1), solidifying himself as one of the pound-for-pound best in the world.

“The Last Stylebender” quickly bounced back with a comfortable decision over Marvin Vettori at 185 pounds in June, but has made it clear he will launch another attempt at claiming the 205-pound belt – and Blachowicz expects to be the one waiting to welcome him once more.

“Yeah, why not,” Blachowicz told the Post about a rematch with Adesanya. “It’s possible but, first of all, if he goes to my category, now he needs to do some fights. He needs to beat two, three guys in 205. And then maybe give him chance for the title. But not immediately.”

Before such a rematch can even be discussed, however, Blachowicz will head to Abu Dhabi to defend his title against Glover Teixiera in October 30’s UFC 267 main event.

The champ knows he will have to navigate a dangerous challenger next weekend in the 41-year-old Brazilian (32-7), who has a propensity for getting rocked before coming back to finish his opponents.

Glover Teixeira punches Thiago Santos en route to a third-round submission in Las Vegas.

“When you hit him and he goes down, you need to calm down,” Blachowicz said. “If you hit him so hard that he’s almost finished, you need to go and finish. You need to know when to do this. Not too fast because he can use it and win the fight. He did this with Thiago [Santos], so I will not do this mistake.

“I’m gonna finish him a little bit later like [Alexander] Gustafsson. He waited to knock him out in the fourth round. He waited for his good moment, and then he finished him.”

“When I do my visualisation training, mental training, I see I knock him out by hand but I don’t know yet which one, right or left,” Blachowicz added. “Maybe I will see this a little closer to the fight. But for sure, KO by hands.”

Post