Aleksandar Rakic says he has ‘unfinished business’ with Jan Blachowicz

LONDON – Aleksandar Rakic is eager to run things back with Jan Blachowicz.

Rakic tore his ACL in the third round against Blachowicz at UFC on ESPN 36 in May, resulting in a TKO win for the former light heavyweight champion. Rakic was forced to undergo knee surgery just a week after the fight to repair his knee, which he already injured during training camp.

Due to the unfortunate ending of the fight, Rakic (14-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) thinks it’s only right that the pair rematch.

“Of course Jan is searching for that title fight, but come on,” Rakic told MMA Junkie. “We have to be honest, he can’t be happy with that win. He didn’t beat me because he was the better man that night, he beat me because I beat myself. I injured myself so yeah now he’s talking he wants to go to middleweight to fight Adesanya, then he said he would welcome Usman to 205.

“Doesn’t make really sense, but I waited on him when he was injured, so let’s be a gentleman and wait for me and let’s finish this business because this is unfinished business. He’s a true warrior, true athlete, I respect him, but this is unfinished business and I know I can beat him, and if this didn’t happen that night, my knee didn’t pop out, I would be No. 1 contender and going to fight for the belt next.”

The fight was tied at one-round-a-piece, with Blachowicz (29-9 MMA, 12-6 UFC) winning Round 1 and Rakic winning Round 2. Rakic believes that he was in the process of taking over the fight.

“I trained really hard for that one, especially the cardio base because we knew it was gonna be my first five-round fight, and I know that I have better conditioning than Jan,” Rakic said. “The plan was to pick him apart. After the second round to see how things were going, to work on the takedowns, to get him tired, and then to mix things up in the stand up.

“Because I felt already beginning of the third round he was already a little bit slower, he was breathing heavy, and if you rewatch the fight, my hands were faster than in the first round. So it took me a while to put the heartbeat up, but the plan was to put the fight as long as possible, to drag him to the deep waters and win by pressure and then maybe TKO or submission.”