Scouting Report: Jan Blachowicz

Jan Blachowicz

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.