We finally made it to the conclusion of our preview series for UFC 267 tomorrow morning/afternoon. This all culminates with the main event for the light heavyweight championship featuring incumbent champion Jan Blachowicz and challenger Glover Teixeira. This may be the strangest title fight I can remember. Well, maybe not stranger than Bisping vs Henderson 2, but you get the point. If you had told anyone a few years ago that we would be getting this fight for the title, they would have told you that you were crazy. Jan had been a solid member of the division, spending a lot of time in the middle of the rankings, but never really being thought of as a legitimate title contender. Meanwhile, Glover was in the middle of a stretch where he was alternating wins and losses as he quickly approached his 40th birthday. So how did we get here?
Let's start with Jan Blachowicz. This may sound weird for someone who is a UFC champion, but it has honestly gone way under the radar that Jan has won his last 5 in a row and 9 of his last 10, with the only loss coming to Thiago Santos in February of 2019. Jan's latest run has had some impressive results over a really nice looking list of opponents. His last fight was a decision win over the previously undefeated Israel Adesanya who was moving up in an attempt to become double champ. Prior to that he defeated Dominick Reyes to capture the title that was vacated by Jon Jones. In the lead up to his title fight, he had knockout wins over Corey Anderson and Luke Rockhold and a decision win over Jacare Souza. Despite this, Jan is one of the most underrated fighters and champions in the organization. He doesn't say a whole lot and when he's not fighting, he's not in the news cycle very much. He doesn't even sit cage side at other events for them to show him on TV between fights or anything like that. This ultimately contributes to his lack of love and hype, but I think fans are starting to come around to him because he's so genuine. He seems like the kind of guy that you would want to be friends with and would just be a regular guy if he wasn't a fighter.
A lot of those things I just said about Jan Blachowicz can also be said about Glover Teixeira. Glover is also a very likable guy who has been on an great run in the latter years of his career. He has 5 consecutive wins including finishes over Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith in his last two appearances. As of the writing of this, it is Glover's 42nd birthday, which is just incredible to think about considering the level he is still competing at. While I am excited to see this fight, part of me is sad that it has to happen, because one of these guys will have to lose. With that said, we can get into the specifics of style a little bit.
This fight will see Jan Blachowicz have a slight reach advantage, which I think is important for him. Even though both guys are listed at the same height, I think Blachowicz will also have a little bit of a size advantage, which could come into play if we see this fight on the ground. Speaking of the ground, I think that is the easiest path to victory for Glover. We've seen him ground and pound Anthony Smith in brutal fashion to get that finish and he was able to submit Thiago Santos, Ion Cutelaba, and Karl Roberson during his latest run. I'm not saying Glover can't win if the fight stays on the feet, but I think that would be a lot tougher of a task for him. Blachowicz is a much better striker than I think a lot of people were giving him credit for, at least before the Adesanya fight. We all know about the legendary Polish power at this point, but Jan is a patient striker and more diverse than a lot of power punchers. Jan will use his kicks to both the legs and to the body, which was very effective against Reyes in particular. He also uses his counters very well, which Luke Rockhold found out the hard way and I think that will be a big part of this fight as it will be on Glover to close the distance with his shorter reach. Another aspect of this is that we've seen Glover's chin be a little more vulnerable lately than it had been in the past. We've seen Glover be hurt and dropped before he was able to come back and win the fight, typically on the ground. In the fight that got him here against Santos, he was dropped on two separate occasions. With someone as powerful as Jan, if he gets dropped, there may not be any opportunity to recover because the lights may be shut off for real. I don't really like simplifying fights down to a few points, but I think this one fits the bill. If Jan can get it standing and as long as he can stay off the bottom, I think he can get it to go his way. Glover's best chance is if he can get on top of Jan and land some ground and pound to potentially open up a submission opportunity.
My official picks for the full card will come out tomorrow morning before the card starts so be on the lookout for that. What do you guys think? Does Jan retain his title? Does Glover find the upset? How does this fight end and in what round? Did I miss anything important? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading.
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