Jan Blachowicz felt he deserved more respect after ascending to the light heavyweight throne, but he entered Saturday night’s main event as a +200 underdog to Israel Adesanya. Blachowicz was successful in his first title defense at age 38, halting Adesanya’s bid at UFC history by earning a unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45, 49-46) after five rounds.
“It was close fight, tough fight but I was a little bit better,” Blachowicz said during the post-fight news conference. “Finally I find a way how to take him down control him on the ground and won the fight and defend the belt for the first time in my life. Amazing feeling.”
Saturday’s main card was the seventh UFC event to feature three title fights. Amanda Nunes retained her featherweight crown against Megan Anderson and Aljamain Sterling captured the bantamweight belt from Petr Yan by disqualification in the lead up to the main event. Blachowicz (28-8) ended three of his previous four bouts by knockout, but his contest with Adesanya (20-1) was the only one of the night’s three title fights to go five rounds.
Adesanya arguably won at least two of the first three rounds, striking and stinging his opponent through a tightly-contested bout. He evaded Blachowicz’s standup power, appearing unfazed by the same left hand that banished Dominick Reyes and Luke Rockhold. But Adesanya, venturing up to a weight class 20 pounds heavier than his middleweight domain, ultimately succumbed to Blachowicz’s duress on the ground.
Blachowicz took Adesanya to the canvas in the fourth and fifth rounds. He imposed his weight on the challenger — Blachowicz weighed in at nearly five pounds heavier — and controlled Adesanya for large stretches of the final two rounds.
“I don’t know about some of those scorecards from the judges but yeah, I lost the fight to the better fighter tonight, the craftier fighter tonight,” Adesanya said.
“I saw him getting tired. Trust me, I was fresh, he was getting tired and the size played a factor in the fifth round.”
Adesanya remains the middleweight champion and intends to return to 185 pounds for his next bout. But his expedition to 205 pounds will cost the Nigerian-born fighter his perfect UFC record and a chance to become the fifth fighter in UFC history to hold two different divisional belts simultaneously. He said he intends to return to light heavyweight “later in the future.”
Blachowicz could next face top light heavyweight contender Glover Teixeira, who congratulated him cageside after the fight. Adesanya said he would like to face Darren Till if he can win his next bout, which will reportedly be against Marvin Vettori in April.
Source: The Washington Post
