Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz would be willing to make a gruesome cut to middleweight for a world title rematch with Israel Adesanya.
The Polish powerhouse is a particularly big light-heavyweight at 6'2", and cuts from as high as 230lb to make the 205lb limit for bouts in his weight class. And despite not having weighed lower than 200lb at any point in his careers as a Muay Thai or MMA fighter, he believes that if a title were on the line he could get 20lb off and make the middleweight limit.
Blachowicz beat Adesanya to defend his light-heavyweight title last year; the one loss that the middleweight champion has suffered in the MMA cage. And after losing his belt to Glover Texeira in October, he is contemplating a one-time move down to offer the middleweight champion a fairer rematch.
"Maybe I have to cut the weight and give him rematch in his category," Blachowicz cheekily suggested during an appearance on The MMA Hour this week. "If I have a chance, why not? For Izzy and his belt, to fight for the belt? I can try.
“I don’t remember [his lightest weight in MMA] but when I was a fighter in Muay Thai, it was 91 kilos [around 200lb]. For a title, I can sacrifice myself a little bit. Why not? I will do it.”
Blachowicz believed that he was about to be given another chance at the light-heavyweight belt against newly-crowned champion Jiri Prochazka, but that appears to have changed in recent days. The Czech fighter just defeated Texeira for the belt, and seems to want to offer the Brazilian an immediate rematch.
“I’m not an expert, but if you start reading about samurai culture, stuff like this, in my opinion and my knowledge, he break the rules,” Blachowicz said of the decision. “He broke his own code. He believes in this, he lives in samurai way, so he [didn’t] uphold this code, in my opinion and what I know about samurai.
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"Because he said, ‘I’m the biggest challenge for him now,' and samurai are always looking for the biggest challenge. If they find it, they want to fight against this challenge.
"So if he said that I am the biggest challenge, he’s lying, or I don’t know what he’s thinking about now that he changed his decision. This is a question for him right now.
“Like politics, now he will say everything to protect himself. I was surprised because nobody expected that, but what can I do? I’m waiting for official decision and that’s it. We’ll see. Maybe he changes his mind again.”
Adesanya also appears to be otherwise engaged after verbally agreeing to face former kickboxing rival Alex Pereira in his next defence. The Brazilian beat him twice in the ring, including a massive knockout, and just took out No.4-ranked contender Sean Strickland to earn a title shot.
