Jan Blachowicz believes fans see him as the ‘true champion’ right now despite Jon Jones never actually losing the light heavyweight title.
The latter vacated the belt last year when he announced that he would be moving up in weight to compete at heavyweight and, since then, Blachowicz has gone on to beat Dominick Reyes and Israel Adesanya in back-to-back title fights, cementing himself as the rightful champ.
Speaking to Submission Radio in a recent interview Blachowicz, who most recently defended his title against Adesanya, explained why fans consider him the new light heavyweight king.
“I think people start to respect me—not start, they respect me,” Blachowicz told Submission Radio (transcription via Denis Shkuratov).