Ryan Spann reveals UFC originally offered him Jan Blachowicz before Jiri Prochazka’s injury forced changes at light heavyweight
Ryan Spann is set to headline UFC Vegas 70 against Nikita Krylov on Saturday but that was not always the plan.
According to Spann, after he knocked out Dominick Reyes at UFC 281 in November, he was offered to fight Jan Blachowicz. However, when Jiri Prochazka got hurt and vacated the belt, the UFC was forced to make some big changes to the division, which included Blachowicz vs. Ankalaev for the vacant belt.
Then, after that fight ended in a draw the UFC made Glover Teixeira vs. Jamahal Hill for the title which forced Spann out of the title picture. With that, the promotion decided to have him headline this event against Krylov.
“They called me before all that. They called me before they announced he vacated. I was going to fight, I want to say, Jan at first. Then from there I was going to fight for the number one guaranteed, and then fight the winner for, at the time, was an interim belt,” Spann said at UFC Vegas 70 media day. “So, Magomed and Glover were going to fight for the interim, and then I was going to fight for number one, because they already knew that homie was going to be out for a while.”
With Ryan Spann not getting the title shot as he wanted, he will have to fight Nikita Krylov on Saturday. Yet, he hopes a win over Krylov can either get him a title shot or be in a number-one contender fight. The goal for Spann is to get the belt and then get out so his teammate Kennedy Nzechukwu can then take the belt.
“The longer it takes me to get to where I’m trying to go (the title), the sooner they give me that, the sooner I can take over,” Spann said. “My plan is to get the belt and then I leave it for Kennedy (Nzechukwu). When Kennedy is ready, I’ll go up or I’ll be done.”
Spann enters his UFC Vegas 70 main event having KO’d Dominick Reyes last time out. Prior to that, he submitted Ion Cutelaba to return to the win column after losing to Anthony Smith.
Who do you think would’ve won, Ryan Spann or Jan Blachowicz?
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