Jan Blachowicz Plans to Empty His Bag of Tricks

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After 13 years in the sport of mixed martial arts, polish powerhouse Jan Blachowicz will finally get his opportunity to compete for an Ultimate Fighting Championship title. With so much skin in the game, and knowing these sorts of opportunities don’t come often, he knows he can’t enter the Octagon at UFC 253 with a narrow game plan. Instead, he expects to use everything he’s learned over his 34-fight career to beat Dominick Reyes and become the second Polish-born champion in UFC history.

“I’m going to use everything I can use, [and] have to use, to win the fight,” Blachowicz told Sherdog. “If I have the opportunity to take him down I will do it. If there’s dirty boxing, I will use it. I’m going to do everything that I can to win the fight. I promise you that. I think if I take him down, I’m going to be much better on the ground than him. I think he’s going to be afraid to go to the ground with me. So maybe I’m going to scare him, fake the takedown [and] maybe he’s going to be a little bit concerned. And I’m going to use it. You will see in the fight. I don’t want to tell you everything I’ve prepared for him. But I’ve got a couple of good things for him.”

In his conversation with Sherdog, the 37-year-old looked ahead to his championship fight on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. He talked the immense level of support he has felt back home in Poland and dealing with the high demand from local and national media there.