It was announced on the weekend that UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will be stepping up a division to try taking Jan Blachowicz’s light heavyweight crown next.
However, that won’t be happening until March, 2021 at the earliest.
Blachowicz and his wife are expecting their first child in December. In addition, his native Poland is struggling to contain the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic which complicates necessities such as travel.
“I can fight in March with anybody,” Blachowicz told ESPN. “It’s no problem for me. But I cannot fight any earlier than March. If Israel wants to wait, no problem.
“In Poland right now, the situation is not so good, and we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow.
“Right now we train normally, but nobody knows what our government is preparing for. We’ll see what’s going to happen later.”
Blachowicz defeated Dominick Reyes to win the UFC light heavyweight championship in September with a second-round knockout. On that same card at UFC 253, Adesanya defended his middleweight title against rival Paulo Costa in emphatic style.