UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz will defend his title for the first time at UFC 259 on March 6 against middleweight champ Israel Adesanya, but doesn't see the fight going the distance despite Adesanya's undefeated record in MMA.

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KEVIN IOLE: What is up, folks. I am Kevin Iole. And it's about a week away, UFC 259 on March 6. It's going to be a big one. We got champion versus champion in the main event. We have the 2020 Yahoo Sports Fighter of the Year, the UFC light heavyweight champion, and, most importantly, a new dad. The light heavyweight champ, Jan Blachowicz. Jan, how are you, my friend?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Thank you. I'm good. Thank you for the invitation. How are you?

KEVIN IOLE: I'm doing awesome. So you've got a lot to fight for in this fight, defending the title for the first time. And, of course, you got your son, Jan, who was born in December. What has that experience been like for you as you're training for a fight and you have to leave mama and your newborn son at home?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: It's amazing feeling to be a father. It's a great adventure, but also a tough job. It's amazing. It's nice, but also it's a tough job. But anyway, I've got to fight, though. My fiance-- she take care of my son-- our son. I don't want to miss it. I want to fight. I have to sleep. You are my [INAUDIBLE], you understand this sport. You know how it works. I have to be-- I need to recover after hard training in the night. So she sleep in different room with our son. But after the fight, I will not sleep and she will be sleep. So I will take care of baby. But in a way, she gives me bigger motivation to train harder, to hit harder, to do everything much better. So I will be ready.

KEVIN IOLE: You're going to owe her big time for this one. I'll tell you that. She's not going to get much sleep. But the reward will be worth it. I named you the 2020 Yahoo Sports Fighter of the Year for what you did-- knocking out Corey Anderson. Of course, knocking out Dominick Reyes to win the title. But if you go back, you're on a four, five winning streak. You've won eight of your last nine. I think people were kind of sleeping on you prior to the win over Reyes. Why do you think that maybe you weren't getting the attention in that division? Or was it just that Jon Jones was consuming so much of it? Was it frustrating to not be getting the attention given how hot you were?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Well, I don't know. This is not question for me, this is a question for the people. I think after this fight, people started paying attention to me, [INAUDIBLE] to me, and started believing the legendary Polish power. That I'm a true champion and I deserve what I've done in UFC. So you need to just wait two more weeks and everything will change.

KEVIN IOLE: Did you feel like things turned around-- your last loss was a knockout to Thiago Santos. No shame in being beaten by him. But you came out and you fought former middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold. And I thought you looked spectacular in that fight. You broke his jaw. Did something switch in that fight that kind of got you on this roll that you're on now? Because you've really been dominant since the Rockhold fight.

JAN BLACHOWICZ: It was like almost is what I've got in my career. It made me a stronger fighter, you know? I always lost focus. No, no, no, not an excuse. But you need to find the why you lost, what happened wrong, what was bad. That was in the car, maybe, something wrong with your home, bad day at the gym-- you need to connect the dots. What goes wrong and don't do the same mistake again. So I lost against Thiago and he'd make me a better fighter. Now I know that I have to keep my hands higher because I'm not-- you can lose with everybody. Everybody can you knock you out. We need to have hands here, not here. This is what I've learned from this fight.

KEVIN IOLE: You're obviously a BJJ black belt. When you add that threat of striking, I mean, it makes you so much more dangerous. How do you think that that'll go into the fight with Israel Adesanya. I mean, he is a natural striker, right? So it would seem likely that you're better off if you can take him down, and work him on the ground, and try to get a submission. But the fact that you're striking now, he has to respect your jujitsu. Does that make your striking so much more better against him?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: I believe it does. Because MMA-- the striking that we did in MMA. We need to be careful for everything. And I have to be ready for his striking as he has to be ready for my striking, for my wrestling, and for my jujitsu. So he's got little more job to do than I. So he has to be ready for this. Of course, I respect him. I have [INAUDIBLE]. Maybe he will try to take me down. You never know. You have to be ready for everything. Because this is MMA and you have to be ready for everything. But yeah, we try to use our jujitsu in this fight also. If I'm going to have opportunity to take him down, I will do this and try to knock him out on the ground or submit him. But anyway, I love to fight and stand up. I love to striking and, for sure, I will try my stand up skills on him also.

KEVIN IOLE: I don't know if you've got a chance to see the photo of him that came out the other day. He looked fantastic, but a lot bigger than you normally see him when he's fighting in middleweight. I don't want to say he's a skinny guy, but he's not one of these big, husky, thick guys. And the picture that I saw of him the other day, as he's getting ready to fight you, was he looked like he had packed on a lot of muscle. And my question for you, Jan, is when you look at that, do you laugh? Because it seems like sometimes guys are better when they're those thin guys, and they're agile, and they're alive, and they can move. And now you pack muscles, that changes your body. When you saw that-- if you saw it-- did you feel like it kind of played into your hands almost?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: We'll see how he look in real life. Taking photos is easy. You can use a lot of filters and stuff like this. Put more light over there, and you will look much bigger, and much stronger, and stuff like this. But I train with lighter guys, with guys from my division and even in the bigger guys, because I want to be ready for everything. But because maybe he will not be [INAUDIBLE] guy. Maybe he will not be in my division, same like me, or maybe he will not be bigger. So I have to be ready for more or all phases of Izzy. And I am.

KEVIN IOLE: Do you feel like it's any different going into this fight? Because you're fighting a guy who has a championship pedigree. He has a championship. He's defended the title a number of times. When you fought for the title, you fought for a vacant title. So you didn't get the chance to beat Jon Jones and be crowned the champion. So is it a different feeling going in? Where you know he's been there before, and he knows what it's like to defend a title, and he knows what it's like for somebody to come after his title. How do you know-- you haven't had that experience because you fought for a vacant title?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Well, I've got this experience, but in different organization. I defend the KFW champion, so I know. I know this feeling. But anyway, I don't think in this way. Even when I fight for the belt with Dominick, I think, OK this is my next fight. I do not put any more pressure for my head. After the fight, I knew that I'm the champion. So right now, I thinking, OK, my next opponent, I have to do everything to do this right. Actually, I want to fight inside the Octagon, win the fight, and after that, OK, I defend my belt. Let's celebrate right now. But not what I'm thinking, OK, next fight, no more fight, nothing more. Because I'm not going to put more pressure to head. It's not good.

KEVIN IOLE: We know you're massive in Poland. We saw the photos when you went home and you got to meet the head of the government. And it was crazy with that. It shows you what a worldwide sport this is that we're in. That you win a fight in the United States and you go across, and there you are, and this massive reaction to it. But what kind of pressure does that put on you? Because now, like, you're such a big figure. Can you walk around in Poland and not be stopped by everybody?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Oh, yes. People stop me every day. I'm a national figure right now. But it's nice, I like this feeling. They are not rude, they just want to say respect for your champion, let's go, let's keep it going, stuff like this. They just take a photo, shake hand, and that's it. So it's really nice. It's amazing that I make my country proud. It's amazing feeling.

KEVIN IOLE: You're the second Polish champion in the UFC, behind Joanna. I know you guys talk. Did she ever give you any advice, kind of, as you were as you're going into this that proved helpful?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: She always texts to me before the fight. Before this fight, she said, I believe in the Sunday only talk today. Maybe she called to me or text me as she always got something good to talk to me. Yes, before every fight. But I do the same for her. Because we are friends. And we fight together in the national Muay Thai team. Yeah, so I know her a long time. I don't remember how many years we knew each other.

KEVIN IOLE: It is pretty crazy when you think about it. Poland, not that huge of a country, and you've got two world champions. You had other fighters that are competing at the high level, both men and women from Poland. How long has MMA been active there and you know what is the secret to the success in that country of producing so many high level fighters?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Because Polish people like to fighting. We like fight sports. And MMA in Poland is really big. It's huge sport. You've got a lot of-- you've got one very big event, KSW, a lot of smaller events every week. There's a small event somewhere in Poland. We just love to do this. Maybe thanks to Joanna and thanks to me, the sport is huge right now.

KEVIN IOLE: Right, yeah.

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Yeah, it's amazing. When you go to the gym and you see more people train, doing jujitsu, grappling, and stuff like this, it's great. They could be future champions. Amazing.

KEVIN IOLE: Adesanya is one of those guys, I think, Jan, that's what I would call a public fighter. He's recognized around the world and he's kind of there. Has that-- and that's what Jon Jones was, right? And you didn't get the chance to fight the champion, Jon Jones. Do you still have that in the back of your mind that someday you'd like to test your hand against him because A, he held that belt for so long, was so dominant; and B, people consider him right now, the best fighter in the world. So do you have that in your mind that you know he's a heavyweight, but at some point down the road you'd like to see him?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Not now. Now I'm thinking about-- but Jon Jones, he promised me to fight after when I knocked out Corey Anderson. I hope that this fight, in future, happens somewhere. Maybe in the 205s, maybe the heavyweight, maybe somewhere in the backyards. I believe that if he promised me, then I believe that I meet him somewhere and we do this fight.

KEVIN IOLE: I think it's interesting. I mean, Jon has been so incredibly dominant. It's hard to pick anybody to beat Jon Jones, given-- it'd be Daniel Cormier, and all these great fighters. But your particular mix of skills seem to mesh up, as well as anybody's, with his. He had some trouble with Dominick Reyes, and Dominick's quickness. But it seems like your skill set matches pretty well with what he does. Do you agree with that?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Well, because I find [INAUDIBLE] this what I talk about all the time. But he does not have Polish power. No, nobody can stop it. And I just know-- just know how-- he's my opponent before time. Because I just believe in myself, believe in my skills. I know what my opponent's going to do and how to-- what to do to just be better than they are. That's it. It's every thinks here, in your head. Just to believe in this. And finally find this thing and just you need to turn it on. Not so easy how I say, but everybody has to find in his own way.

KEVIN IOLE: Exactly, no 100%. Finally, let's just get your read on the fight. Like, what do you have to do to be successful in this fight? I know you have to be prepared for everything, but, like, as you're sitting there, what are your keys to success, do you believe?

JAN BLACHOWICZ: To put pressure on him. To put my style on him. And that's it. When I do my visualization training, I see that I knock him out in second round by high kick, left kick over the head. This is what I see before sleep. We find good sparring partners. They do great job with sparring session. They do the same move like Izzy do. So we know what they have to do to beat him, do to stop him, and be the first guy who beat him in MMA. If you want to see the way, you have to watch the fight.

KEVIN IOLE: Do you feel it's an advantage to you, Jan, that you're going to fight at the apex in the 25 foot cage, where he's a guy that loves to move, loves to use a lot of the cage. Do you feel like that makes it--

JAN BLACHOWICZ: I don't focus about this, but better for me. I don't have to-- I don't like running, so I don't have to be running to catch him. Just small step, and pressure, pressure, all the time pressure.

KEVIN IOLE: Well, he says he doesn't like running, but I'll tell you this. If he knocks out Israel Adesanya, he's going to be running away from all these fans. They're going to be wanting a piece of him because he is going to have a lot of fans if he knocks out Israel Adesanya. Jan Blachowicz, UFC light heavyweight champion, thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it and congratulations again on your newborn son.

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Thank you. Appreciate it, thank you for the invitation.

KEVIN IOLE: Be well, my friend.

JAN BLACHOWICZ: Bye.

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