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Former UFC star Chael Sonnen has lashed out at fans for underestimating Jan Blachowicz heading into UFC 259.
The Polish sensation is set to defend his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship when he locks horns with Israel Adesanya in the main event this evening. Some feel he’s going to be in with a great chance of beating “The Last Stylebender” but there are also plenty of individuals who are underestimating what the man behind Polish Power is capable of.
The Blachowicz effect
It makes sense for fans to be excited about what Adesanya brings to the table because we’ve all seen what he’s done at Middleweight. However, at a completely new weight class, absolutely anything can happen as we’ve seen in several of Blachowicz’s most recent fights.
During a UFC 259 preview, the aforementioned Sonnen didn’t hold his tongue when discussing how disappointed he is by those who aren’t giving Blachowicz a chance in this fight.
“This is shocking disrespect [towards Jan Blachowicz]. Not only the fact that you’ve got a guy in Israel Adesanya who has never competed in the division, gets to be the number one contender. A guy in Adesanya who can’t even make the contracted weight is also a three-to-one favourite? Excuse me? If there’s any reason to feel upset and feel disrespected, Blachowicz along the way to this took out Dominick Reyes, who by the way most people thought beat Jon Jones, knocked out Luke Rockhold who is a former world champion, to disrespect and overlook a guy like this is very surprising to me.
“I don’t think that Adesanya is dismissing him, but I’m telling you the bettors and fans have.”
Sonnen knows something about going up from Middleweight to Light Heavyweight to challenge the champion after he went up against Jon Jones in an attempt to win the gold. He failed in his mission, but when it comes to Blachowicz, there’s clearly some real momentum behind him.
The great thing about UFC 259 is that it feels so unpredictable. We can all pretend as if we know exactly what’s going to happen from the early prelims all the way up to the three title fights but really, we have no idea. It has the aura of a truly special UFC night and we can’t wait to see how all of this will unfold in Las Vegas later tonight.
