Light Heavyweights
Jan Blachowicz (19-7) vs. Devin Clark (8-1)ANALYSIS: This 205-pound affair probably will not be pretty to watch, but it still represents smart matchmaking. Clark is a fantastic physical specimen and stout wrestler, developing the rest of his game around those traits, while Blachowicz is a minus athlete whose grappling game -- the one he used to rise to prominence in Poland’s KSW promotion -- has completely disappeared since he started fighting higher-level opposition in the UFC, where he has gone 2-4.
It is not just the 2-4 mark that has made Blachowicz a chore to watch in the UFC. Since his shocking UFC debut in which when he liver kicked brute Ilir Latifi and crumpled him in less than two minutes, he has done very little. Outside of a prosaic win over long-term UFC jobber Igor Pokrajac, he offered almost nothing beyond sheer toughness in decision losses to Jimi Manuwa, Corey Anderson and Alexander Gustafsson. In his last bout at UFC 210 in April, he nearly knocked out the infinitely hittable Patrick Cummins with an early uppercut and pounded on him for most of the first round. As usual, his cardio fell off of a cliff and he could not stop a takedown, ultimately losing a majority decision.
There are still obvious kinks in Clark’s overall MMA game, as evidenced by when he let Alex Nicholson jump into a massive right hand and deck him square in the face, handing him the only loss of his career. However, in his subsequent Octagon bouts versus Josh Stansbury and Jake Collier, “The Brown Bear” showed improvement at dealing with counterpunching opponents, applying his wrestling even after he was initially stuffed or became tired; in the case of Collier, he avoided sudden, wild attacks. Clark is starting to find his right hand from distance with more regularity, and when he cannot secure a clean takedown, he uses the clinch position to dirty box and maul his foes. By the end of the Collier affair, he nearly had him finished through pure attrition.
Blachowicz’s grappling skills are still formidable, but they do not belong to a strong bottom player. He will have to somehow find an early Hail Mary strike like he did in his UFC debut against Latifi, which is completely out of his usual conservative, potshotting character. The Pole absorbs 3.73 significant strikes per minute, which should give Clark the ins he needs to rush behind his hard right hand, get Blachowicz down or to the fence and then tire him out. Blachowicz’s toughness and all the tediousness that goes with it will probably be on full display, as Clark eventually gets rolling downhill on the fatiguing grappler and takes a unanimous decision.
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