Daniel Cormier Reacts To Jan Blachowicz’s Win: Put Some Respect On His Name
Former two-weight UFC world champion and colour-commentator, Daniel Cormier had given his thoughts on light heavyweight champion, Jan Blachowicz’s win over Israel Adesanya at UFC 259 on Saturday — detailing how the Pole deserves massive plaudits off the back of the victory.
Headlining the UFC Apex facility event against the middleweight champion, Blachowicz secured the first successful defence of his 205-pound crown, also preventing Adesanya from scoring his second UFC title and becoming a two-weight world champion held simultaneously.
Utilising his overall size in the later championship rounds, Blachowicz, a deserved winner on the night managed to secure two-fight altering takedowns in both the fourth and fifth round — assuming full-mount in the last round before the klaxon sounded.
Taking a unanimous decision victory, Blachowicz was awarded a somewhat questionable 49-45 decision on two of three judge’s scorecards, with the final judgement awarding the Cieszyn native a 48-45 scoring. With the defeat, Adesanya saw his promotional-perfect run of nine straight victories come to an end, as well as suffering his first professional loss in twenty-one mixed martial arts outings.
UFC commentator, Cormier gave his thoughts on Blachowicz’s victory over Adesanya on an instalment of DC & Helwani following UFC 259 — claiming that although doubting the 38-year-old initially, respect must be put on Blachowicz’s name.
“Do I believe (Israel) Adesanya could beat some guys at 205-pounds? Absolutely,” Cormier said. “”He just could not beat Jan Blachowicz on that night, and Jan’s the champion for a reason, man. He’s really good, he’s very powerful, he’s got fantastic cardio, he’s got a great chin. And now, the confidence matches all the ability. And it’s going to be difficult to get that belt off him.“
“Listen to this, Jan Blachowicz is a guy that you thought would never hold a UFC championship — (then he) knocks out Dominick Reyes, defended it by beating Israel Adesanya,” Cormier said, “Fighting Glover (Teixeira) is good, Glover’s what, 42(-years-old)? 41(years-old). Jan’s gonna be favourite to beat Glover. So now you’re only looking at a guy who won the belt, you’re gonna look at a guy with a résumé that has multiple title championship defences on his résumé.“
Predicting a dominant reign at light heavyweight for Blachowicz, Cormier questioned if fellow UFC 259 feature, Aleksandar Rakic or the aforenoted, Teixeira would be capable of dethroning him.
“Because if you look down the line (at light heavyweight), are you really picking (Aleksandar) Rakic to beat Jan after last weekend, in his fight with Thiago Santos?” Cormier said. “Are you picking Glover to beat Jan Blachowicz right now? I mean, you’re starting to look at a guy who could sit at the top of this division for a really long time. So for all the disrespect this young man got when he won the belt, even from me, it’s starting to look like we were all completely wrong, and it’s time to put some respect on Jan Blachowicz’s name. He has earned it, he deserves it — and it could not have happend to a better man.“
With the decision win, Blachowicz extended his winning spree to five-fights, following past wins over Dominick Reyes, Corey Anderson, Jacare Souza, and Luke Rockhold.
