UFC 323 star credited harrowing ritual with saving his career when losing streak almost got him fired

One former UFC champion developed a unique pre-fight tradition.

A host of big names are returning to action at Saturday’s UFC 323 pay-per-view, which will end with title defenses for Alexandre Pantoja and Merab Dvalishvili.

Before Joshua Van challenges ‘The Cannibal’ to become the second youngest UFC champion of all time and Dvalishvili runs it back with Petr Yan, three former champions will also make the walk on the main card.

The first to do so will be Jan Blachowicz, who opens the main card against the charging Bogdan Guskov. And the ex-light heavyweight king may turn up to T-Mobile Arena with a rather unsettling item in tow…

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UFC 323 fighter Jan Blachowicz revealed his unsettling pre-fight ritual

Blachowicz knocked out Dominick Reyes at UFC 253 in 2020 to become Jon Jones’ successor on the light heavyweight throne. That crowning marked the culmination of an impressive resurgence for the Polish star.

Before climbing through the ranks to win gold, Blachowicz found himself at risk of getting cut after losing four of five fights between 2014 and 2017.

“I thought he was going to get fired. Seriously,” his wife Dorota Jurkowska told ESPN in April 2017. 

“I was expecting that email to say he was gone. I was emailing [UFC matchmaker] Mick Maynard immediately. We had a lot of emails go back and forth,” she added.

He turned things around in a major way, however, and the veteran fighter seemingly believes that a harrowing item played a role.

Ahead of his title win five years ago, Blachowicz disclosed one of the most unsettling pre-fight rituals of all time, revealing that he would return to the forest in his hometown to touch the rope used by a man he found who’d hanged himself.

“‘When you find a hanged man, you take his rope for luck. That’s what people believed in the old days,’” Blachowicz said in his behind-the-scenes YouTube documentary before UFC 253, quoting an officer at the scene.

“I checked the internet, and sure enough, that is exactly what people thought and believed in,” he added.

The Polish fighter brought it up again before his next fight against Israel Adesanya at UFC 259. This time, rather than returning to the forest, Blachowicz displayed a colored bracelet made from the rope that he carried around.

“I was with my dog walking in the forest and I found a hanged person,” he said during an episode of the UFC 259 Embedded: Vlog Series, before once again noting the officer’s remarks about the rope bringing good luck.

“I checked on the internet and people a long time ago believed in this, so I thought why not try?”

While the exact timeline of the ex-champ’s forest discovery is unknown, Blachowicz made a sudden turnaround by going on a run of nine wins in 10 fights to likely save his job on MMA’s biggest stage.

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Jan Blachowicz needs another career turnaround to begin at UFC 323

Blachowicz finds himself in the midst of his worst period since his fortunes changed in 2017.

The Polish powerhouse has won just one of his last five fights. Blachowicz beat Aleksandar Rakic in 2022 after the Austrian light heavyweight suffered a knee injury, but the former champ has not had his hand raised since.

Following a split draw in his title fight against Magomed Ankalaev in 2022, Blachowicz narrowly lost to Alex Pereira in the Brazilian’s debut at 205 pounds before a similarly close defeat against Carlos Ulberg this past March.

Having slipped to No. 5 in the rankings, the 42-year-old will need to defend his spot against Bogdan Guskov in what likely marks a make-or-break fight for Blachowicz’s ongoing ambitions of returning to the light heavyweight throne.