Jan Blachowicz Admits Shoulder Injury Caused Significant Loss of Strength

Jan Blachowicz will admittedly need some time to regain his famed “Polish Power” as he awaits a shoulder surgery that has him sidelined.

The former Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champ was scheduled to fight Aleksandar Rakic in a rematch at UFC 297 in January but was forced out of the matchup due the injury. While it was initially assumed that the injury happened in camp, Blachowicz revealed that it had been building up for a while.

“I feel it for like three years, something like this,” Blachowicz told BJPenn.com. “I feel pain in my shoulders, but I accept the pain. Last three months, two months, I started losing my power, my strength. Forty percent goes, I tried and do something with physiotherapy and doctors, and they tried to fix it but every training was worse.

“When I did wrestling, I’d hold someone and they’d just grab my hand and open it like this, too easy. We did an MRI on both shoulders because I feel pain in both of them, and I need to clean it. If I were to clean it, I can come back to training. They said after this, after good recovery, my power will be back. I feel pain, but the pain is OK. The power, I feel like a 2-year-old girl, so it’s not possible to prepare for a fight.”

While Blachowicz ideally wanted to return to action early next year, he might have to wait longer depending on the surgery.

“I was hoping for the first part of the new year, but we will see,” he said. “First of all, I need to do this surgery and rehab, then we can start thinking about it. I need to go to the gym and do a sparring session, I want to feel my power again and I can find a new fight.”