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Anthony Smith has praised Jan Blachowicz for his UFC 259 victory over Israel Adesanya.
While it may have been almost a year since the event, the showdown between Israel Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz still holds a lot of weight. That's because it marks the only time Adesanya has been beaten in professional mixed martial arts.
'The Last Stylebender' shifted up to light heavyweight in an attempt to become a two-weight world champion. Instead, he fell short of the mark after a fantastic wrestling display from Blachowicz, who, at the time, was the reigning 205-pound king.
In a recent appearance on Michael Bisping's Believe You Me podcast, the Pole's divisional rival Anthony Smith had the following to say about the performance in relation to Adesanya's upcoming middleweight rematch against Robert Whittaker.
“I think Whittaker did an interview somewhere and he said something along the lines of ‘Blachowicz wrote the book on how to beat Izzy.' Now, as much s*** as people might give Blachowicz right now [for losing to Teixeira], he did kind of fight the perfect fight. Everyone forgets that he hung very well with Izzy on the feet and kept the fight close enough to win at least one of those rounds striking. I’m not sure Robert Whittaker can do that. I think all the wrestling Jan did in the later part of the fight was set up by the striking in the beginning of the fight. There’s not a lot of people on the planet who can do that with Izzy.”
Catch the full episode below:
What's next for Jan Blachowicz?
While he may have lost his title to Glover Teixeira just a matter of months ago, Jan Blachowicz is still determined to bounce back and fight for the strap once again.
Unfortuantely for him, he'll have to wait a bit longer before getting another shot. He recently had to withdraw from a scheduled bout with Aleksandar Rakic due to injury.
The serious nature of the problem, given that it's located around his neck, means he may have to sit on the shelf for a while before it gets rectified.
Meanwhile, the division continues to move forward with Glover Teixeira preparing to defend the belt against Jiri Prochazka later this year.
