Jan Blachowicz has spoken about his next fight against Alex Pereira at UFC 291, vowing to send him back down to Middleweight.
Pereira’s debut against Blachowicz is scheduled for the co-main event at UFC 291 in Salt Lake City on July 29th. Jan is coming off a disappointing fight against Ankalaev for the vacant light-heavyweight title and is looking for redemption.
Pereira decided to move up after his KO defeat to long-time rival Israel Adesanya in April. There was talk in the lead-up to the Adesanya fight that “Poatan” would be better moving up to light-heavyweight.
Jan Blachowicz Makes an Early Prediction For the Pereira Fight
Speaking to the MMA Hour Blachowicz had this to say about the fight:
“I think this is my job in the UFC sometimes. I need to do it in the best way, to send him back to the lower category,”
Jan continued: “For sure, he’s going to have power but what I always say, if you change weight category you can spar in your gym with the bigger guys but when you fight, it’s completely different. Timing, speed, everything is different. Three times I fight before with guys from the lower division and I won everything. This time will be the same.”
In the long term, Jan also had some thoughts about how this fight sets him up for the future:
“If I win the fight, my next fight will be for the title. It’s bigger motivation for me, and thanks to Alex that he moved to our category — new blood. I’d like to know what place I am right now. It’s very good for me that after this fight, my next fight will be for the title. I’m just happy to take the belt again to Poland,”
Quotes Via BJPENN.com
What do you think about Pereira’s move to light heavyweight and do you think Blachowicz will send him back to middleweight?
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
