Report – Jan Blachowicz vs. Aleksandar Rakic rebooked for UFC Vegas 54 headliner on May 14.
Former undisputed UFC light heavyweight champion, Jan Blachowicz has been reworked to meet with the surging #3 ranked challenger, Aleksandar Rakic at UFC Vegas 54 on May 14. – taking main event honors at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Blachowicz, a former undisputed light heavyweight champion, has been sidelined since October of last year where he suffered his dethroning against veteran Minas Gerais favorite, Glover Teixeira – dropping a rear-naked choke loss to the Brazilian.
For Rakic, the Austria-born contender most recently featured in March of last year against common-foe and one-time title challenger, Thiago Santos – scoring a rather forgettable unanimous decision victory. Ariel Helwani was first to report the news of Blachowicz’s reworked pairing with Rakic.
Poland native, Blachowicz was initially set to meet with Rakic in the main event of UFC Columbus last weekend in Ohio, until a neck and spinal injury suffered in camp forced his withdrawal from the main event bracket.
A former KSW light heavyweight champion to boot, Blachowicz initially lifted the UFC light heavyweight crown against Dominick Reyes in September 2020 in a vacant title affair, before handing middleweight kingpin, Israel Adesanya his first professional defeat at UFC 259 back in March of last year in his sole successful title defense.
Rakic, 14-2 as a professional, featured on the undercard of Blachowicz’s win over Adesanya – handing Muay Thai striker, Santos a unanimous decision loss over the course of three rounds.
Adding Santos to an impressive list of Octagon victories, Rakic also holds standout wins over Jimi Manuwa, Devin Clark, and in his first main event outing under the promotion’s banner – cruised to a decision win over one-time title challenger, Anthony Smith. Rakic made his Octagon debut back in September 2017 with a decision win over Francimar Barroso.
Senior writer for FightBook MMA. An aspiring mixed martial arts reporter based in Ireland. Producer of news articles, interviews, opinion features, and exclusive features such as, ‘The Fallout’, ‘The Breakdown, and, ‘This Week In MMA’.
