As Glover Teixiera smiled while being interviewed in the cage moments after his UFC 267 title victory, Jan Blachowicz was distraught. He crouched near the fence with his head down, consoled by his fiancee. And when it was his turn to speak with Daniel Cormier, he was brutally honest in assessing his performance but also optimistic about his future.
“Everything was wrong with me,” Blachowicz said in front of 10,000 fans at Etihad Arena. “I think I left the legendary Polish power at hotel room. That’s what happened. But this is not end of story. This book is not closed. I’m not a quitter. I’m not going anywhere.”
Blachowicz’s reign as UFC light heavyweight champion came to an end Saturday when he tapped out to a Teixeira rear-naked choke in the second round of his title fight in Abu Dhabi. Teixeira (33-7 MMA, 16-5 UFC), two days after his 42nd birthday, became the second oldest champion in UFC history – behind only Randy Couture – with an impressive showing against Blachowicz (28-9 MMA, 11-6 UFC).
With a little more time to think about, Blachowicz reiterated that he wasn’t at his best in the cage – but he also didn’t want to take away from Teixeira’s win.
“I think my performance tonight was horrible,” Blachowicz said in his post-fight news conference (via MMA Fighting). “I don’t know. I wasn’t champion today. He was. He is. …
“For sure something was bad. It wasn’t me (in there). I don’t want to explain myself. He beat me. Everybody see. It is what it is.”
Teixeira made a statement early in Round 1 with a takedown to control the majority of the first five minutes. But Blachowicz said he didn’t feel bad after getting through it and figured he could make adjustments and rebound in the second.
“But he don’t let me do this,” Blachowicz said. “He just take me down and submit me. What can I say more? I feel like sh*t, and that’s it.”
For Blachowicz, 38, the future is unclear after a whirlwind 13 months. He won the title vacated by Jon Jones last year with a TKO of Dominick Reyes at UFC 253. That was followed up by a successful title defense against middleweight champ Israel Adesanya, whom Blachowicz handed his first defeat this past March at UFC 259.
Blachowicz said he needs to rest a little before he returns to the octagon, hopefully in March. And when he does, he’ll be gunning to make another run at gold inspired by Teixeira’s remarkable late-career resurgence.
“He’s 3 years older than me, so it’s something (that shows me) I have some time to get this belt back,” Blachowicz said. “And that is what I’d like to do in the future.”
Jan Blachowicz upset at UFC 267 performance but not discouraged: ‘This book is not closed’