Jan Blachowicz has claimed that he was “robbed” of a victory after his split decision loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 291, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Blachowicz said “Bunch of thieves, they robbed me. Anyway, thank you all for your support. I’ll be back.”
Jan Blachowicz and The Fight
The Polish fighter started well in the first five minutes, taking Pereira down and controlling the position for a majority of the first round. The Pole got to the back of his opponent, but he wasn’t able to put his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to work as ‘Poatan’ defended the attempts to lock in a Rear Naked Choke.
As the fight went on, Blachowicz’s gas tank seemed more and more drained. Daniel Cormier, who was on live-commentary at the event, made multiple comments about how the red-corner fighter’s approach isn’t usually so grapple-heavy. DC questioned, at the start of the second round, whether Blachowicz would be able to keep it up for another 10 minutes. He couldn’t.
Pereira, who was making his UFC light heavyweight debut, used some thudding leg kicks to chop away at the base of his Polish opponent, as well as landing some clean shots when Blachowicz was forced backwards towards the cage by the pressure of Poatan.
In the end, two of the three judges felt that Pereira had done enough to win the fight- a result that Blachowicz was clearly confused by as soon as it was announced.
An Unexpected Result?
Going into the bout, many UFC fighters were having their say on this exciting matchup. Israel Adesanya predicted that Pereira would win via left-hook knockout. But if the fight were to go the distance, ‘Polish Power’ would be victorious. Despite having faced, and lost to, both men before, Adesanya didn’t this one right.
If you’d have asked Blachowicz before the fight he might’ve also had the mindset of ‘if this goes to a decision I’ve won this fight.’ But, as Dana White says, you can’t always leave it to the judges.
How did you score the fight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below?
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
