UFC 239 play-by-play for Jan Błachowicz vs. Luke Rockhold at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold (16-4) makes his move up to the UFC light heavyweight division at UFC 239. Rockhold is set to take on tough 205-pound contender Jan Błachowicz (23-8) in the second fight of the PPV main card.
Read on for our UFC 239 play-by-play and results for Błachowicz vs. Rockhold.
Jan Błachowicz vs. Luke Rockhold play-by-play
Round one
Rockhold begins with a left high kick. He’s wearing a sleeve on his left shin and is looking huge for the light heavyweight division. Opens up with strikes and then shoots for a double-leg takedown. Blachowicz moves back to the cage. Rockhold has the left leg of Blachowicz laced up. He loses control of the leg and then starts to drag Blachowicz down to the mat. Blachowicz is trying to stand but Rockhold is keeping pressure on him against the cage. Blachowicz hits Rockhold with a hard elbow and is now pressing his forearm across Rockhold’s head. Slow start to the fight. Rockhold’s controlling the position but doing nothing with it.
Another big elbow lands for Blachowicz. He disengages from the clinch and lands again as they separate. Rockhold goes back to the left high kick. Rockhold goes after the lead leg of Blachowicz but it’s checked. Rockhold misses with a swift kick upstairs. Blachowicz heavy inside leg kick. Blachowicz advances with punches that miss but then connects with a left body kick. Blachowicz again checks a low kick of Rockhold. Rockhold spinning back kick to the body falls short. Front kick lands for Rockhold. Blachowicz crushes Rockhold with some heavy punches and then lands a head kick to the back of the head as the buzzer sounds. An intense ending to round one.
That first round goes to Jan Blachowicz. Defended Rockhold’s takedowns attempts and looked good when striking.
The Body Lock scores the first round 10-9 for Blachowicz.
Rockhold wobbled at the end of round 1! #UFC239 pic.twitter.com/7W48D8Df0X
— UFC (@ufc) July 7, 2019
Round two
Blachowicz opens up early and lands. He’s working the lead leg of Rockhold now. A straight right lands for Blachowicz. Rockhold trying to get his kicking game working, but he hasn’t landed cleanly yet. Rockhold presses Blachowicz to the cage again. They separate and Blachowicz connects with a huge left hand to the chin of Rockhold and he was out instantly. Rockhold’s head snaps back and Blachowicz finishes him off with some extra punches to make sure.
That’s a huge win for Blachowicz. That wasn’t just a sudden knockout finish. He was controlling all aspects of that fight.
Rockhold had no success with his grappling. He wasn’t able to get Blachowicz down to the mat. While standing, Blachowicz was defending Rockhold’s kicks and landing heavy punches of his own.
Jan Blachowicz def. Luke Rockhold via knockout (left punch) – R2, 1:39
New division, same problems. Jan Blachowicz bombards Luke Rockhold in round two! #UFC239 pic.twitter.com/925UHjLi5g
— Kyle Johnson (@VonPreux) July 7, 2019
UFC Fighters React to Blachowicz KO
@LukeRockhold talk that shit…but that’s none of my business. 🤷🏽♂️ pic.twitter.com/jVsPqUKjwu
— Anthony Smith (@lionheartasmith) July 7, 2019
That’s the things about moving up , you deal with more power coming at you. Luke looked good early but he almost used too much power early with everything even the clinch and takedown attempts , big win for Jan #ufc239
— Brian BOOM Kelleher (@brianboom135) July 7, 2019