Jan Blachowicz believes the UFC is giving Alex Pereira preferential treatment.
Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) defends his light heavyweight title against Khalil Rountree (13-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) in the UFC 307 main event Oct. 5 in Salt Lake City, a fight announcement that caught many off guard.
Blachowicz (29-10-1 MMA, 12-7-1 UFC), who arguably gave Pereira his toughest test at 205 pounds when he lost a split decision at UFC 291, wants to know why he wasn’t approached as a potential opponent for “Poatan.” He also can’t understand why Magomed Ankalaev didn’t get the call and was instead booked against Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308.
“No f*cking idea,” Blachowicz told Middle Easy. “I don’t know. You tell me because I’m confused. What the f*ck, you know? Why they book Ankalaev with Rakic? Why? Why they don’t ask me about this?
“Maybe I would be ready a little bit earlier. No one asked me. I just don’t understand. For me, it’s weird, and that don’t make any sense for me. I feel like special protection for Pereira. I don’t understand. Why?”
Blachowicz was the one who welcomed Pereira to the light heavyweight division – a fight he’s still adamant he won. He thinks the UFC is tactically picking strikers for Pereira so he can shine.
“I believe that I won this fight against him, and maybe they don’t want to make this fight again because they know that this time, he’s going to lose for 100 percent,” Blachowicz said. “Maybe also that’s why they don’t want to give Ankalaev to him because Ankalaev is also very strong. Maybe this is the reason, that Khalil is a striker and maybe they want to make another nice win for him. Easy, maybe not easy, but another knockout win, something like this.
“I just don’t understand. … If they want big name, I think they can make Ankalaev with Pereira right now. I think Ankalaev will be ready also for another UFC in Abu Dhabi. I think they know everything, what they want to do. They just want to do this, and they did. They’ve got something in their head like, one year into the future, something like this. So, I think they already know what they want to do.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
