Team Adesanya “Definitely” Wants Future Rematch With Blachowicz

Israel Adesanya and his team are not ready to bid goodbye to Jan Blachowicz just yet and have instead expressed a “see you later.”

Things did not go as planned for Israel Adesanya at UFC 259. Instead of capturing a second world title before potentially being on his way to a third, he would be sent back down to the middleweight division via the courier’s Polish Power and polished grappling. But this isn’t necessarily the end of the story and could instead turn out to be a “to be continued.”

As a major fan of anime, The Last Stylebender will look to someday avenge his loss in a dramatic encounter live and in living color according to head coach Eugene Bareman.

“We’re competitive, Israel’s ultra-competitive,” Bareman said in an interview with Submission Radio. “Israel will go down and clean up and dominate 185 for a while. And then I do see Jan as being quite a long-reigning champion. I think we’ll definitely chase Jan again. He’s a worthy opponent and he’s beaten us and he’s a worthy opponent. I can’t exactly predict the future, but we will definitely come hunting for the Polish power again.”

Based on Bareman’s timeline, much would have to go right for this to play out in the way he envisioned. Firstly, if Adesanya is to move back up to 205 for an immediate title shot, that would mean he would need to have continued to win at 185. Then, in what is completely beyond Adesanya’s control, Jan Blachowicz would have to do the same at 205. Blachowicz is currently 38 years old, so we also have to consider how much longer the Pole plans on fighting. 

Nevertheless, if all goes well, this is a fight that Adesanya and his team would love to run back, even though they have no excuses for the original outcome and have embraced it with full acceptance.

“No excuses,” Bareman said of the UFC 259 loss. “I think the training camp went well, and the lead-up to the fight in fight week was brilliant. Nah, I don’t. There’s no excuses here. This is the thing, man, when you lose, it doesn’t happen in this sport nowadays, but sometimes you just lose and you just have to take it. And we are as a team internalizing it, and we’re being humble about it and taking it like a loss, like you should do. It doesn’t happen enough in this sport. People kind of refuse to accept a loss, but we’re accepting it we’re looking to take what we can out of it.”

Do you think we will ever see a rematch between Israel Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz?