Aleksandar Rakic issues statement following fight-ending injury against Jan Blachowicz at UFC Vegas 54

Aleksandar Rakic has spoken out following his UFC Vegas 54 defeat against Jan Blachowicz.

Things certainly didn’t end the way Rakic or even Blachowicz had anticipated. Both men traded bombs and Rakic had some success with the grappling going into the third round of their pivotal light heavyweight clash.

While Rakic found some success in the bout, things came crashing down when he took a step back and seemingly blew out his knee. Blachowicz did not follow up with any strikes and the fight was called off.

It was a frustrating end to the fight for Rakic, who was closer to a UFC title shot than ever before. With that said, he appears to be in good spirits.

Here’s what he had to say on his Twitter account.

https://twitter.com/rakic_ufc/status/1525804460630585344?s=21&t=RQU73Ip1Nbh3N1YnBfN7tg

“A great battle took place in the octagon tonight but unfortunately it ended not the way Jan and I or the fans wanted. The same injury from 3 weeks ago in camp showed up again tonight. Congratulations Jan Blachowicz. Now on to the road of recovery.”

Aleksandar Rakic will likely have to take some time off now due to the injury. He was the number three-ranked UFC light heavyweight going into his bout with Blachowicz.

There’s a chance he’s done fighting in 2022 depending on the severity of the injury. The good news for him is that the medical field has gotten so advanced that if his ACL is indeed torn, it’s not the career-changer that it would’ve been in years past.

As for Blachowicz, he may have put himself in prime position to get back in the light heavyweight title hunt. He’ll have to wait for Glover Teixeira to put his gold on the line against Jiří Procházka at UFC 275 on June 11.