Kamaru Usman recalls his face-off with Jan Blachowicz and still believes he had the advantage - "I was out there thick on him"
Kamaru Usman explained how he would find a way to defeat Jan Blachowicz at light heavyweight. Usman and Blachowicz's title reigns overlapped in 2021-2022. After Blachowicz lost the light heavyweight title to Glover Teixeira, Usman stated that he could move up in weight and beat the Polish fighter. Since then, the duo have been linked for a potential clash on several occasions since the remarks.
Interestingly, Usman faced off with Blachowicz when they were attending the UFC 276 event in July 2022. The size parity between the two led the MMA world to believe that it could be an interesting matchup.
In the recent episode of the Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru & Henry podcast, Usman and Henry Cejudo discussed the incident. 'The Nigerian Nightmare' said:
"You see my arms next to his? I was like, 'Yo!' Everybody was talking about he's a lightweight and thing but bro! I was out there thick on him. See, this is the thing. I wouldn't have called for 205, listen, if I didn't think at that point that the style favored me and I could do it."
Speaking further, Usman explained how he would approach the fight against a power puncher like Blachowicz, crediting Teixeira for setting a blueprint to defeat the Polish fighter:
"Everybody's got power when the fight starts. But you grab the leg and you drag him down once, twice and you make him work up and work up, the fight completely changes. And that's exactly what I was going to do. Glover Teixeira did the exact same thing to him."
He added:
"I'm not going in there saying, 'Oh, I'm going to trade with him.' Eventually, fatigue makes cowards of us all. So you wear someone down enough, he might make me look like Mike Tyson. So, that's why I like that fight."
Catch Kamaru Usman's comments below (52:14):
Jan Blachowicz welcomed the prospects of a fight against Kamaru Usman
After losing the title to Glover Teixeira, Jan Blachowicz returned to competition against Aleksandar Rakic in May 2022. Heading into the fight, Blachowicz interviewed with the New York Post.
Upon being asked to share his thoughts on Kamaru Usman's comments, Blachowicz said:
"He is the best fighter in the world right now, yes? that would be a pleasure for me to fight against someone like him. Why not? We can do it in the future. I will be ready. It will be an exciting fight." [H/T New York Post]
Usman and Blachowicz are still top contenders in their respective divisions. While 'The Nigerian Nightmare' is coming off a majority decision loss against Khamzat Chimaev in a closely contested fight, Blachowicz ended up on the wrong side of a razor-thin split decision against Alex Pereira in his last outing.