Born: February 24, 1983 (Age: 40) in Cieszyn, Poland
Division: Light Heavyweight
Height: 6' 2”
Reach: 78”
Record: 29-9-1
Association: WCA Fight Team
Stage of Career: Slightly or significantly past his prime
Summary:
Jan
Blachowicz is a very tough, well-rounded fighter who has,
thanks to his great intelligence, managed to improve in his mid to
late 30s, including minimizing or masking his flaws. He is an
excellent striker and a good grappler, though the best
practitioners in each area can defeat him in each area. Among his
weapons standing up are powerful crosses from each hand, especially
the left, an excellent uppercut, and very good kicks. In terms of
grappling, he has good takedowns from the clinch, fantastic top
control, and strong submissions, though he lacks GNP and can also
be taken down and kept there, even succumbing to GNP or submissions
himself. However, Blachowicz is outstanding at implementing his
gameplan, striking with the better grapplers and grappling with the
better strikers. He is a very difficult foe that only a great
fighter fighting intelligently can beat.
STRIKING
Stance: Orthodox
Handspeed: Average
Jab: Decent, being technically solid and possessing impact, but a
little slow.
Cross: Straight right is good. However, the straight left is great,
being very technical, straight, fairly fast and powerful, knocking
out Reyes.
Left Hook: OK; not having the proper rotation or arc, but accurate
and powerful enough to knockout a chinless Rockhold while moving
backwards.
Overhand Right: Mediocre; clumsy and telegraphed, although it's not
terrible and probably has some power.
Uppercuts: Excellent left uppercut he catches wrestlers looking for
the takedown with that he landed on Cummins; a good, sound,
technical shot he often throws as a lead.
Solitary striker or volume puncher: Throws punches in bunches,
normally a series of straights.
Favorite Combinations: The 1-2, although the it can be from either
stance since, as noted, his left cross is better than his right
cross.
Leg kicks: Excellent, possessing technique, impact, and
accuracy.
Body kicks: Excellent, with similar properties to the leg
kicks.
Head kicks: Rarely throws these, but they're good, only missing a
bit of speed and flexibility when compared to his kicks to the legs
and body.
Chains Kicks to Punches: Yes. Is quite good at this, and can chain
the kick to the head or body.
Blachowicz is an excellent striker, and has improved in this area
in his middle to late 30s, a rare and impressive accomplishment. He
is not flawless though, and has certain defects that opponents can
take advantage of. One of his main weapons is the ability to throw
technical, straight, fast and powerful crosses from either hand,
making it difficult to defend, and which is made even harder by
Blachowicz throwing punches in bunches, one cross after another.
His left hook is OK, nothing special, and his overhand right is
downright clumsy, but he has a very effective uppercut that is
great against wrestlers looking to shoot. His kicks are also
excellent and underrated, and he can even chain them to his
punches. There are better strikers than Blachowicz in UFC's 205
pound weight class, but not many, and not by much.
CLINCH
Physical Strength: Excellent, a strong guy even able to match great
grapplers in the clinch like Rockhold, Jacare, Cummins and briefly
even
Corey
Anderson.
Technique: Good, with a strong grasp of the fundamentals, though he
is often a little behind and caught off-guard by great
grapplers.
Knees: Rarely throws them, though they're OK when he does.
Elbows: More of a forearm smash than a true elbow, he uses it after
framing an opponent and it's decent.
Defense Against Knees and Elbows: Can certainly be hit with them
when pushed against the cage, as even Jacare showed.
Blachowicz is a very strong man in the clinch and difficult to take
down, even for elite grapplers, though he does absorb some strikes
in close quarters. He isn't terribly dangerous himself there
either, often leading to a stalemate, though he has occasionally
shown a unique forearm smash rather than a true elbow which he uses
after framing an opponent.
GRAPPLING
Wrestling from a Shot: Decent, though it's not his favorite area to
grapple. Can counter lazy kicks with a nice takedown.
Wrestling in the Clinch: Very good, even very briefly took Cummins
down with a double-leg lift from a clinch against the cage, as well
as taking Anderson down with a double-leg into lift in a clinch
against the cage in their first encounter.
Takedown Defense: Pretty good, though better grapplers can
certainly exploit him here; was taken down at will by Anderson, but
defended against some of Cummins' attempts. Completely neutralized
Devin
Clark and just barely managed to stay upright in the clinch
against Rockhold and Jacare. Was easily taken down by Krylov's
first shot and later in the fight by
Glover
Teixeira after having some success striking. Most recently
taken down by Ankalaev consistently in later rounds.
Ability to get back to feet: Very limited; misses easy
opportunities to wall-walk back up and uses a closed full guard
from the bottom. Can use an armbar attempt to regain his feet.
Submissions: Excellent; plenty of threatening submissions from the
top, especially a very quick, tight, and technical rear-naked choke
he has ended many fights with.
Defense and BJJ from the bottom: Mediocre; agile off his back in
going for submissions, but also a lot more susceptible to
ground-and-pound. Can be ground-and-pounded and even submitted.
Top control: Great; very heavy and cuts off escape attempts very
well, making it exceptionally hard for opponents to get back
up.
Ground-and-pound: Basic and fairly average, with the occasional
punch not putting much of his body into it.
Like his striking, Blachowicz's grappling is good overall, but the
very best grapplers can potentially beat him there. On the flip
side, Blachowicz is able to defeat many lesser grapplers himself in
that arena. He has very good takedowns from the clinch and
outstanding top control. His ground-and-pound isn't much to worry
about, but his submissions, especially the rear-naked choke,
absolutely are. His own takedown defense is solid but can be
punctured by better wrestlers, especially more recently. Off his
back, Blachowicz is quite poor at getting up, and while he is agile
with submission attempts from his back, can be ground-and-pounded
and even submitted himself.
INTANGIBLES
Athleticism and general physical strength: Good, clearly a strong
guy and doesn't look athletically deficient even when he was
39.
Cardio: A mixed bag; has lost fights due to badly gassing out, like
the Cummins fight, where he was utterly spent at the end of Round
2. However, is now much better at managing his energy and has
successfully gone 25 minutes, though that often means having to
fight at a very slow pace.
Chin: Good, able to eat plenty of blows, though he can be hurt and
even knocked out, as
Thiago
Santos showed.
Recuperative Powers: Good, generally recovering well.
Intelligence: All-time great; executes outstanding gameplans to
beat more talented opponents, most notably against Adesanya, and
has managed to improve in his mid to late 30s as his natural
physical ability waned. Huge overachiever relative to his natural
gifts.