There wasn't any shot in the fight when I felt I had to be careful - Jan Blachowicz reveals how it felt to be hit by Israel Adesanya
Jan Blachowicz had his first successful title defense against Israel Adesanya in their much anticipated matchup of champions at UFC 259.
Though Jan Blachowicz entered the fight as a sizeable underdog, he was able to thwart Adesanya's attempt at being a two-division UFC champion. While Izzy is known as a sniper on his feet, Blachowicz managed to avoid any serious damage with commendable defense in the first three rounds.
Jan Blachowicz then took the game to the ground in the championship rounds. It was here that he dominated Adesanya enough to get away with a comfortable unanimous decison win.
In a recent interview, Jan Blachowicz revealed that although Adesanya had some good kicks, there wasn't any one shot in the fight that really threatened 'Polish Power'. Talking about the fight, Jan Blachowicz told MMA Fighting:
"No, he hit me couple of times with clean shot. But nothing was like you know, that I feel that I will dizzy out in the fight. But I feel it you know, I feel specially his kicks. He has really good kicks, you know, strong. And I feel that ‘Oh my god’ when he kick. Low kicks also. But there wasn’t any shot in the fight where I think ‘Oh, I have to be careful. Maybe one more and will be the finish of the fight’. So no."
Jan Blachowicz knew what to expect
The UFC light heavyweight champion also claimed that he was well prepared going into the bout against Israel Adesanya. According to Jan Blachowicz, though he might have misjudged the speed and power of Adesanya, 'The Last Stylebender' failed to surprise him overall. Blachowicz further told MMA Fighting:
“He was completely what we expect. He does everything that we thought he was going to do. Two things was different. I thought that he would be a little bit faster than he was but also he was a little bit stronger than I think he will be. Those were the things that I expected. But the rest of the things was exactly what we expected he was going to be.”