Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz plans to restore some respect to his name by beating top contender Aleksandar Rakic in Las Vegas this weekend.
The Polish power puncher hasn’t fought since losing his 205-pound title to Glover Teixeira, who was a heavy underdog before their fight at UFC 267 in October 2021.
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Blachowicz is a former UFC light heavyweight champion
Blachowicz was supposed to fight Rakic when the UFC returned to Ohio in March, but a peculiar and frightening injury forced him out of the fight.
The 39-year-old woke up one morning feeling a little pain in his neck, but thought he had just slept weird and decided to continue with an early workout.
“I went to practice and we did drills, very light drills, and my friend, he gave me a very easy punch to the head – a very light punch – and the left side of my body, from my head to my leg, was completely paralyzed; I didn’t feel it for a minute,” Blachowicz told UFC.com.
“I was very scared because I had never felt anything like this before, and I think, ‘It wasn’t a bad sleep; it’s something serious,” said Blachowicz, who was later diagnosed with a nerve problem in his neck.
Fortunately, the UFC fan favorite responded well to a two-week rehabilitation program, avoided surgery and was able to quickly resume his fight with Rakic.
Blachowicz goes into his fight with Rakic as an underdog and is determined to beat the younger, bigger, fresher fighter and live up to UFC Vegas 54.
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Blachowicz is the only man to beat Adesanya in MMA
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Rakic is close to winning the title
“So I’m showing the world again that I deserve respect as a fighter,” he said when asked about his underdog status. “I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again, with pleasure. I don’t care about that. I may or may not be an outsider. We do not care? Not me.”
After joining the UFC in 2014, Blachowicz endured a topsy-turvy career in the promotion before finding his best form at 205 pounds.
The European knockout entertainer rode a three-fight winning streak to earn his shot against the released Jon Jones following UFC 247 in February 2020.
Blachowicz went through Dominick Reyes in two rounds at UFC 253 later that year to become the second Polish champion in company history.
Always the underdog, Blachowicz went on to earn a unanimous decision victory over previously undefeated middleweight king Israel Adesanya when he moved up to lightweight in March 2021.