Jan Blachowicz battled bad cut, stolen car, and diarrhea leading up to UFC Vegas 54 fight

Jan Blachowicz had a hell of a time on his road back to the UFC Octagon after losing his belt to Glover Teixeira in Oct. 2021. And while his win over Aleksandar Rakic was spoiled slightly after Rakic blew his knee out in round three, a win is a win, and Blachowicz was very happy with it ... and to be done with his camp.

“This camp was very hard for me, lot of things happened to me,” he told Michael Bisping in the cage. “I had one week that was like, first of all they stole my car. After that I have diarrhea, I cannot train for three days. When I come back to training, in a sparring session, sparring partner cut my eye. I say what the f—k. But, thanks to my coach, we survive these s—t things, we are here in Vegas, enjoying our life.”

At the UFC Vegas 54 post-fight press conference (watch it here), Blachowicz shrugged off the wonky finish.

“Of course, always I’m a fighter, a warrior. It’s better when you win by TKO, KO, submission clean,” he said. “But, my body was tougher tonight. That’s it, end of story. I was ready for it, third, four, five rounds, yeah? He [was] not.”

As for the nasty looking eye injury Blachowicz suffered in the first round, Jan is headed into surgery to fix it.

“It’s okay, but I’m gonna have some small surgery on Monday for this eye,” he said. “Doctors say maybe it’s gonna be small, maybe it’s gonna be bigger, he don’t know yet he need to check in the hospital everything.

“It was in the beginning of the first round, one of the first punches and I didn’t see anything in the first round with this eye,” Blachowicz added. “But, I have to check it. My coach says it was a finger, Aleksandar said it was a punch. I don’t know, I will watch and check and give you an answer.”

The most important thing for Blachowicz was that he regained a feeling of enjoyment out of fighting that he said eluded him in the Teixeira match.

“This what I was looking for, this answer,” Jan said. “This fight give me this answer, what I want. Do I feel the same way I feel before Glover, when I fight Israel and Dominick Reyes. And I’m just happy because I go there inside the Octagon to do job, to do great fight, but also to have fun and enjoy. And I have it.”

As for what’s next, Blachowicz is hoping he gets the winner of Glover Teixeira vs. Jiri Prochazka at UFC 275 on June 11, 2022.

“I hope so that UFC give me another title shot, that I’m going to be next. I’m number one, Rakic was number three. For me it’s obvious, I’m number one contender for title shot.”

For complete UFC Vegas 54 results and coverage click here.