Jan Blachowicz sees Thiago Santos as toughest opponent, has no problem facing him despite friendship

UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz believes Thiago Santos is the toughest test out there for him.

Blachowicz recently became the new 205-pound king following an impressive second-round TKO win over Dominick Reyes at UFC 253 last month.

He has since spoken of potential fights with former divisional king Jon Jones and middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Of course, the more likely option is him defending his new middleweight crown against other contenders in the division such as Santos and Glover Teixeira, both of whom face each other next on November 7.

The winner of that fight could very well get the next title shot and when asked who his toughest test would be out of Jones, Adesanya, Santos and Teixeira, Blachowicz gave a surprising but also not-so -surprising answer.

“I can beat all of them, but I think the rematch against Thiago will be the most tougher for me,” Blachowicz told Submission Radio.

Santos, of course, is the only fighter to inflict defeat on Blachowicz in his last nine outings when he TKO’d him back in February 2019.

Despite that, there are no hard feelings between the pair. After all, Blachowicz would even train with Santos at the latter’s gym in Rio de Janeiro later that year as they eventually became friends.

And it wouldn’t be weird either if he was set to defend his title against Santos in the near future despite their new friendship.

“For me, no,” Blachowicz replied when asked if it would be weird to fight Santos. “In the past I’ve fought against friends. I fought against my friend who I trained with in one tournament. And for me it’s a normal thing. Inside the cage, inside the octagon we are fighters, we are sportsmen.

“So, I can knock him out. I want to knock him out. But after the fight I can go and drink beer with him. So, for me it’s not a problem. I will never drink beer with [Luke] Rockhold because he is an asshole. But Thiago is normal. We are friends.”

Santos will be competing for the first time since his split decision defeat to Jones in their light heavyweight title fight in July last year.

You can watch the full interview below: