So as Anderson put himself through another rigorous training camp in New Jersey, it wasn’t to prepare for the same Blachowicz he beat the last time, it’s to beat the 2020 version.
“It’s a brand new fight, a brand new opponent,” he said. “I’m not even thinking about anything that happened the first fight. We’re not thinking about anything I did or he did. It’s a whole new camp, a whole new study, a whole new plan, a whole new breakdown. Everything is brand new, so it’s like I’m fighting a whole other person.”
In the case of the 30-year-old Anderson, he may be an entirely different fighter than he was in his fourth UFC bout. Back then, it was wrestling, wrestling and more wrestling from “Overtime,” who specialized in taking opponents to places they didn’t want to go. But in recent years, and especially during his current four-fight winning streak, there’s been an evolution in his striking game that was never more evident than when he put a momentary stop to the rise of Brazil’s Johnny Walker last November at Madison Square Garden.
It was that Performance of the Night knockout that put Anderson in this main event and in the conversation for a shot at Jon Jones’ UFC light heavyweight crown. All that in a little over two minutes, but he’s not surprised how things played out both during and after the fight.
More From UFC Rio Rancho: Fight by Fight Preview | Jan Blachowicz’ Second Act | Fighter’s On The Rise | Pereira’s Unconventional Style | Diego Sanchez’s Top TUF Moments
“I was visualizing it the whole camp and I knew what would happen,” Anderson said. “We go out there and flat line this guy and they were gonna put the respect on my name and give me the opportunity to fight in a main event and possibly fight for the title next. Sometimes, I look back, and me and Frankie (Edgar) talked and I asked him, ‘Is it crazy to you to think it was only five or six years ago that I was on The Ultimate Fighter and only had three fights and now we’re here together? We live in Jersey, and I’m about to be fighting for the title soon if I win this one?’ So we have that talk. As for what happened after Johnny Walker, nah, I expected all that to happen.”
Having grown up as a fighter in the UFC, Anderson’s defeat of Walker could almost be described as Graduation Day, because he put everything together on the night when he needed to be on point everywhere. That’s what separates fighters in the Octagon, and Anderson has learned the hard way in the past that what happens in the weeks leading up to a fight most likely determines what happens in it.
