Aleksandar Rakic reacts to a video of him released by ESPN, after sustaining an injury during his fight with Jan Blachowicz at UFC Vegas 54
UFC Vegas 54 featured a light heavyweight clash between top-ranked fighters Jan Blachowicz and Aleksandar Rakic. After an impressive first round, Rakic yielded to a horrific knee injury, that saw Jan coming back to winning ways.
It was a cracker of a main event at UFC Vegas 54, as Jan Blachowicz came back to winning ways with a TKO victory over Aleksandar Rakic. The fight began with both fighters grabbing the centre of the octagon almost immediately and peppering each other with low leg kicks. While Jan was doing a better job at checking the kicks, Rakic got pretty swollen up early on the lead leg. However, the Austrian fighter had tremendous success with his straight right jab, that even split open a cut under the eye of Jan, which constantly bothered him. Jan’s signature left to the body, and right overhand up top was landing all night, as he continued chopping down the front leg in an attempt to slow down Rakic’s jabs and deracinate his base.
The second round continued at the same pace, up until Rakic decided to initiate grappling exchanges. He started out with a single leg attempt, to a high crotch, and eventually took down Jan by sweeping his foot underneath him. However, Rakic landed into the guard of Jan, which set up a triangle attempt for the Polish star. Rakic maintained his composure as he got out of the submission trap and established full mount. He stayed there for the remainder of the round, even tying up Jan’s legs with a foot triangle and landing uppercuts from the ground. He won the round comfortably.
The third round began with Jan coming out stronger and faster with his strikes, and landing the leg kick with more purpose. During one of these exchanges, Rakic blew out his right knee pretty bad and fell straight to the ground. Jan being the great sportsman that he is, did not follow up with any strikes as the referee called an end to the fight.
ESPN MMA posted a video of Rakic backstage in tears after the injury, showing the struggles, sacrifices, and pain these fighters go through to entertain us. He reacted to the video on Twitter by saying, ‘The things many people do not see often, is what happens immediately after leaving the cage… The return will taste that much sweeter. #comebackseason‘
“60,000 people could be there”- Jan Blachowicz envisions a fight with Jiří Procházka at a stadium show in Poland
UFC light heavyweight contender Jiri Prochazka is set to make his first attempt at capturing the gold from the Brazilian champion Glover Texeira. Texeira had beaten former champion Jan Blachowicz back in October 2021 to claim the gold, and became the oldest fighter to win a championship belt.
Jan Blachowicz is embarking on a path of resurgence and faced top contender Alexandar Rakic very recently. He won the fight by TKO after Rakic injured his ACL between the fight. The victory put Blachowicz right back into title contention spot.
During an appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s The MMA Hour, Jan Blachowicz expressed his belief that a fight against Procházka would do big numbers in his hometown country.
“I think both, if Glover wins, it’s gonna be a good story about the rematch; with Jiri, very good for us because if they will do this fight in Europe then it will be one of the biggest fights in Europe,” Blachowicz said on The MMA Hour when asked if he had a preference between fighting Teixeira or Prochazka. “Me against Jiri. It will be amazing because we’ll do somewhere in Poland or Czech Republic.
“I think if they will make this fight in Poland, me against Jiri, in national stadium. Joanna [Jedrzejczyk], Mateusz Gamrot. Sixty thousand people could be there.”
He continued by adding, “I like both of them, but I keep thinking a little bit for Glover because I would like to take a rematch and take the belt from his hands,” Blachowicz said. “But we will see. But yes, I will be supporting Glover.
“If Glover take down Jiri, then he will win the fight,” he added. “But you know, Jiri is a crazy fighter with a crazy style, weird style, but it’s working in a good way. So we will see, 50/50, we will see. I’m curious. Maybe I’m gonna be there, we’ll see. We’re working on this to be there.”
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