Jan
Blachowicz admittedly would have preferred a clean finish
against Aleksandar
Rakic in the
UFC on ESPN 36 main event, but the Polish light heavyweight was
nontheless pleased with the final result.
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The fight ended prematurely when Rakic suffered an apparent right
knee injury while stepping backward, and the bout was halted
immediately at the 1:11 mark of Round 3. The matchup was
competitive to that point, with Blachowicz having success on the
feet in Round 1 and Rakic controlling positioning following a
takedown in the second frame. Blachowicz made a point at Saturday’s
post-fight press conference that durability is part of being a
successful fighter — and he had the obvious edge in that category
on Saturday night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
“Of course, I’m a fighter, I’m a warrior. It’s better when you win
by TKO, KO, submission, clean,” Blachowicz said. “But my body was
tougher tonight, that’s it. End of story. I was ready for third,
fourth, five rounds — he was not.”
While there was still much to be decided if Rakic hadn’t gone down
with the unfortunate injury, Blachowicz was pleased with the way
things were unfolding up to that point.
“I see that his chin was much bigger and he was slowing down and he
was changing positions. So I knew that he was starting to feel the
kicks. That was one of my game plans,” Blachowicz said. “I wanted
to kick these legs because his position is very low and he has long
legs and it’s hard when you’ve got low position to block it. I want
to focus him on my hands and kicks, to make him slow down — he also
has power in his legs, so I want to take it away. I think that was
working very good.”
While Rakic is facing a potentially lengthy rehabilitation process
following Saturday’s fight, Blachowicz didn’t emerge completely
unscathed. The former light heavyweight champion suffered a cut
under his left eye that appeared to develop when Rakic landed a
stiff jab in the first round. Blachowicz was bothered by the injury
for the rest of the period and later revealed that it will require
a corrective procedure.
“It’s OK, but I’m going to have some small surgery Monday on this
eye,” Blachowicz said. “The doctor said maybe it’s going to be
small or maybe it’s going to be bigger, he doesn’t know yet. He’s
going to check in the hospital.
“I have to check it [how it happened]. I don’t know. That was in
the beginning of the first round one of the first punches, I don’t
see anything in the first round in this eye. But I have to check
it. My coach said it was a finger. Aleksandar said it was a punch.
I don’t know. I will check and give you an answer.”
For Blachowicz, it was important to return to the win column to
remain in the title discussion after losing his belt to Glover
Teixeira in his previous appearance at UFC 267 this past
October. On Saturday, Teixeira, who will defend the crown against
Jiri
Prochazka at UFC 275 next month, appeared to strike a
gentleman’s agreement with Blachowicz on social media.
Let’s go @JanBlachowicz
Win tonight…and I’ll win Jun 11…then we run it back— glover teixeira (@gloverteixeira)
May 15, 2022
Regardless of how things play out there, Blachowicz believes he has
solidified his position as the division’s No. 1 contender.
“I hope so that the UFC gives me another title shot,” he said.
“That I’m the next one. I was No. 1, Rakic was No. 3 — for me, it’s
obvious that I’m the No. 1 contender now for the title shot.”