Earlier this year, Jan Blachowicz achieved what some of the greatest fighters of all time couldn’t manage to do: defend the UFC light heavyweight title. This Saturday, he will attempt to join some truly exalted company.
When Blachowicz turned back middleweight champ Israel Adesanya in his attempt at two-division glory at UFC 259 in March, he eclipsed some historic names including Mauricio Rua, Forrest Griffin and Randy Couture, who failed to defend the 205-pound title in either of his stints as champ. If Blachowicz can repeat the feat against 42-year-old Glover Teixeira this weekend at UFC 267, he will pass up one-time defenders Lyoto Machida and Quinton Jackson.