Blachowicz “is a good first fight for me”.
Former UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira is excited about his first challenge in a new division, saying former light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz “is a good first fight for me” at 205 pounds.
Pereira, who announced his move to 205 after losing his 185 championship to longtime rival Israel Adesanya in April, is scheduled to fight Blachowicz in the co-main event of UFC 291 on July 29 in Salt Lake City.
“My next opponent will be Jan Blachowicz,” Pereira (7-2) said on his YouTube channel. “He’s a dangerous guy, experienced and who we know thanks to my training partner, Glover Teixeira, who faced him. I’m sure training hard and together with Glover, he will pass me a lot of information [about the opponent] as he always does.”
The Pole (29-9-1) was light heavyweight champion from September 2020 until October 20, 2021, when he was dethroned by Teixeira.
“Everybody knows Blachowicz is a dangerous guy, with a complete game, but I think it’s a good first fight for me. When I say my first fight, some people will think, ‘Oh, they gave him an easy opponent.’ No, everybody knows my history. I was a middleweight champion. So, of course, they wanted to give me one of the top five finishers. For me, it wasn’t a surprise. We were negotiating for a while. I was looking forward to it. That’s all.”
Blachowicz had a successful championship defense during his reign, a win over Adesanya that marked the reigning 185 champion’s first MMA loss in his bid to become a two-time champion.
Adesanya, meanwhile, believes Blachowicz will try to repeat against Pereira the same game plan he used to knock Izzy down three times in his unanimous decision win.
“I think Jan will take him down and beat him there,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Jan will stand in front of him for a while, but eventually he’ll take him to the fence or try to take him down like he took me down. I don’t think he’s going to shoot for a takedown, so he’ll take him to the fence and from there to the ground.”
