Jan Blachowicz advises Israel Adesanya against a move back up to light heavyweight.
Adesanya (24-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) finds himself in a quandary after losing to middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis by submission in their title fight Saturday at UFC 305 in Perth.
Blachowicz was surprised by Du Plessis’ performance, dubbing his style as awkward.
“It was a very good fight,” Blachowicz told Middle Easy. “I didn’t expect that. I thought Izzy was going to win, but Dricus is tough. He has a very weird style. I don’t know how to say it, very tough, weird style of MMA, but it’s working. He knows what to do, how to fight, and he just uses his style very good. Congratulations to him.”
Adesanya has now lost three of his past four and is unsure what’s next. With not too many lucrative names left for him at middleweight, Blachowicz was asked what he thought of Adesanya moving up to light heavyweight, but he wasn’t fond of the idea.
That’s because Blachowicz welcomed Adesanya to 205 pounds when he was champion, and was able to shut down his dual-champion pursuit when he defeated him by unanimous decision at UFC 259.
“I think he should stay at 185 and do something, but we’ll see what’s going to be his decision,” Blachowicz said. “I’m not in his head. I don’t know what he’s going to do right now. We we’ll see. Maybe he’ll move to 205, but I don’t think so. It’s going to be much harder for him than at 185.”
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