'It's a title elimination fight': Aleksandar Rakic on Jan Blachowicz challenge at UFC Vegas 54
The Austrian MMA fighter has put some promising performances and now looks to produce a similar effort against the Jan Blachowicz.
Jan Blachowicz, a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and currently the number one ranked fighter in his division, will look to make a strong return to the Octagon at UFC Vegas 54 on Sunday. The fighter, who is yet to compete since losing the title to Glover Teixeira in October last year, will face an equally strong opponent in Aleksandar Rakic.
Rakic, who currently ranks third in his division, too has his eyes set on the gold. In fact, his resume is as good as Blachowicz with just one defeat in his last 15 fights. Shaping as a potential number one contender to challenge Teixeira, the Austrian MMA fighter has put some promising performances and now looks to produce a similar effort against the former champion.
“My debut was in Holland in 2017, and my first opponent was a UFC veteran with eight fights in the UFC already. I beat him, and couple of months later I had another fight in Hamburg. He was an unbeaten guy ranked number 15 in the heavyweights, Justin Ledet, and against him I made a UFC record - the highest differential of strikes between opponents in a three-round fight. Jimmy Manua was the biggest fight of my career, I got spectacular knockout of him in the first round with a left high kick in his retirement fight. UFC kept giving me higher and higher opponents. Anthony Smith and I were set for a co-main event and then we suddenly got moved to be the main event. I beat him by decision and put on a dominant performance, so a couple of months later I got Thiago Santos, who was my third opponent in a row who was a former title challenger and I beat him three rounds. Now I have I have the pleasure to fight the former champion, Jan Blachowicz. I'm very excited about this,” Rakic told Hindustan Times in an exclusive interaction.
In fact, Rakic believes the fight against Blachowicz to be a "title elimination fight."
"I beat Jan Blachowicz, and I will have beaten the former champ. I cannot find any words or how to spell it out, but you know, this is it for me. It's a title elimination fight," he told further about his fight, which is also the main event of the show.
Rakic is ambitious about closing the contest in the first-round itself, but is also aware of the challenge Blachowicz brings on the table.
"The best scenario and what I wish for is a first-round knockout of Jan, that would be awesome. It would be a gift for me because I've really working hard for it. But on the other side, I know that Jan is coming prepared, focused and of course he wants his title back so it's not going to be easy. But I will do my best to do it. I'm ready for five rounds of pure domination," he concluded.
Watch the LIVE coverage of UFC Fight Night - Blachowicz vs Rakic on SONY TEN 2 (English), SONY TEN 3 (Hindi) and SONY TEN 4 (Tamil and Telugu) channels on 15th May 2022 from 7:30 am (IST).
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