Jan Blachowicz vows to make another run at UFC title: ‘I’m not a coward, I will not quit’
It took Jan Blachowicz years to become one of the UFC’s most surprising champions and he’s committed to doing what it takes to claim gold again.
Blachowicz lost his light heavyweight title to Glover Teixeira in the main event of UFC 267 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, submitting to a rear-naked choke in the second round. Outside of a few competitive exchanges, Teixeira controlled the action with his wrestling and jiu-jitsu before finishing the fight on the ground.
Speaking to the media after the fight, Blachowicz didn’t have any answers for his disappointing performance.
“My performance today was horrible,” Blachowicz said at the UFC 267 post-fight press conference. “I don’t know. I wasn’t champion today, he was. He is.”
“I don’t know, I need time to think about it, but for sure something was bad,” he added. “It wasn’t me. I don’t want to explain myself, he beat me, everybody see that. It’s not over, I’m not a quitter, I will not go anywhere, I will come back here for sure. I need to rest for sure, think a little bit, and for sure I will come back. I’m not a quitter, I’m not a coward, I will not quit. You’re gonna see me in the octagon again.”
When Blachowicz tapped out, it was withing seconds of Teixeira locking in the rear-naked choke. Combined with what was overall a flat outing for the Polish star who was coming off of an impressive win over UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, the possibility of a Blachowicz injury was raised by the UFC 267 commentary team and later by reporters.
Blachowicz did not note any significant injuries, instead giving credit to Teixeira for asserting his will in the fight.
“Everything was okay,” Blachowicz said. “The first round I think that he would take me down, but anyway I don’t feel bad in this position. I say okay, this round is for him now, the second round I’ll start working, I’ll do my job.
“But he don’t let me do this. He take me down again and submit me. What can I say more? I feel like sh*t and that’s it.”
Immediately following the fight, Blachowicz and Glover shared some polite words, with Blachowicz telling Teixeira to appreciate the moment, the same moment that Blachowicz himself experienced in September of last year when he defeated Dominick Reyes to claim a vacant UFC light heavyweight belt.
Given that Glover won his title the same week that he celebrated his 42nd birthday, Blachowicz is optimistic that his own time as a top competitor isn’t close to being over.
“He’s three years older than me, so I have some time to get this belt back and that’s what I would like to do in the future,” Blachowicz said.
“We’ll see what happens in the future,” he added when asked if he’d like to win the championship back from Teixeira. “I don’t know. If it will be a chance to take a rematch, of course I would like to take a rematch with [everyone I lost to before]. First of all, now I don’t have chance for rematch, now I need to prove that I have to come back and win a couple of fights.”