‘That Deserved To Be My Fight’

Jan Blachowicz wants redemption against Alex Pereira.

The Light Heavyweight title picture in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has been in disarray since late 2022. Injuries and a questionable scorecard ultimately hot-potato’d the belt around through vacancy until recently landing around the waist of Brazil’s Pereira at UFC 295 two weekends ago (Nov. 11, 2023).

Throughout the recent timeline, Poland’s Blachowicz was a key player, vying for vacant gold at UFC 282 against Magomed Ankalaev en route to a split draw in December 2022. Both men were then left out of the picture and Blachowicz went on to welcome the former Middleweight champion, Pereira, to the division in July 2023. Unfortunately for Blachowicz, he lost a split decision and was “pissed” to hear Pereira’s callout of Israel Adesanya following his second round technical knockout of Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295 (watch highlights).

“Great performance, great win,” Blachowicz told MiddleEasy of Pereira’s win over Prochazka. “But in a way, I’m angry because that deserved to be my fight. In that moment when I saw the result, I wasn’t surprised, but I was surprised by what he said after the fight. He called out ‘Izzy’ again. I said, ‘No, I can’t believe it. One more time? Come on. Give me a break. You’ve got some business to do with me.’

“I believe that I won our fight, so first of all, me then after that, you can do what you want to do,” he concluded. “That’s why I was so angry. But anyway, great performance, great win. He’s a double champ so congratulations to him.”

Pereira’s 205-pound title win made history as he became the quickest fighter in the promotion to achieve dual-division champion status. “Poatan’s” first title defense is expected to come against the former champion, Jamahal Hill, later in the year. Meanwhile, Blachowicz will once again have to get past Aleksander Rakic in their rematch at UFC 297 on Jan. 20, 2023.

“I think similar to our first fight,” Blachowicz said. “This time, I just knock him out, clear KO, nothing to say after this.”