Former UFC light heavyweight champion, Jan Blachowicz has recently made his claim for a title fight rematch against Alex Pereira, claiming that he won the first meeting between the two.
Jan Blachowicz welcomed Alex Pereira up to the light heavyweight division in July last year at UFC 297, following the Brazilian’s middleweight title loss to Israel Adesanya.
After an extremely close three-round co-main event, ‘Poatan’ was awarded the split decision, with him then going on to beat Jiri Prochazka for the vacant 205lb title.
Jan Blachowicz claims he’s a better fighter than Pereira and wants title fight next
Since his loss to Pereira back in July last year, the 41-year-old underwent a double shoulder surgery. The former champion was scheduled to rematch Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 297 in January, but withdrew due to his shoulder injury.
Blachowicz admitted that he still needs a little bit more time to recover from the injury as he provided a timeline for his return.
“Everyday is a little bit better but still, I need more time to recover and to fix correctly, so I think my next fight will be at the end of the year, not earlier.” Blachowicz told James Lynch at Fanatics View.
The split decision loss to Pereira is still playing on the Polishman’s mind, and he has claimed that he is the ‘better fighter’ between him and the Brazilian, stating his claim for a rematch.
Commenting on ‘Poatan’s’ UFC 300 win against Jamahal Hill, Blachowicz said, “He is a better fighter than Jamahal, but he’s not a better fighter than me.
“I believe that I deserve the rematch, I proved that when we fought, I still believe that I won that fight. The (judges) saw it differently with the scores, but yeah, I believe I won that fight against him and deserve the rematch.” he added.
Blachowicz wants to see Ankalaev fight Pereira next
Alex Pereira flirted with the idea of moving to heavyweight for his next fight, following his dominant win on April 13th. But since then, it has seemingly unfolded that he will stay at 205lbs next and may have another rematch to get through.
Jiri Prochazka was also victorious at UFC 300, knocking out Aleksandar Rakic in round two of their featured prelim fight. After the fight, Prochazka called for a rematch against Pereira, with the Brazilian seemingly accepting the idea of that.
Blachowicz, though, believes that Magomed Ankalaev should be next, “I want to see Pereira against Ankalaev because (Ankalaev) is the hardest opponent for (Pereira) right now because I’m not in the division because I’m out (with injury) for a couple more months.
“I would like to see this fight and then after this fight, he can go to heavyweight, but when I come back to fighting, he has to give me the rematch.” Blachowicz added.
Blachowicz and Ankalaev fought for the vacant light heavyweight title back in 2022, and after fighting to a draw, the 205lb title remained vacant.