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 spherical towards Blachowicz at UFC on ESPN 36 in May well, resulting in a TKO gain for the former light-weight heavyweight winner. Rakic was compelled to undergo knee surgery just a week immediately after the battle to fix his knee, which he currently wounded for the duration of teaching camp.

Owing to the unfortunate ending of the fight, Rakic (14-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) thinks it is only proper that the pair rematch.

“Of training course Jan is seeking for that title combat, but appear on,” Rakic informed MMA Junkie. “We have to be genuine, he simply cannot be delighted with that gain. He did not conquer me simply because he was the superior guy that night, he conquer me mainly because I defeat myself. I hurt myself so yeah now he’s conversing he needs to go to middleweight to fight Adesanya, then he reported he would welcome Usman to 205.

“Doesn’t make truly sense, but I waited on him when he was injured, so let us be a gentleman and hold out for me and let us complete this business due to the fact this is unfinished business. He’s a correct warrior, real athlete, I respect him, but this is unfinished enterprise and I know I can beat him, and if this did not occur that night time, my knee did not pop out, I would be No. 1 contender and heading to combat for the belt subsequent.”

The battle was tied at 1-spherical-a-piece, with Blachowicz (29-9 MMA, 12-6 UFC) winning Round 1 and Rakic profitable Round 2. Rakic believes that he was in the process of taking more than the combat.

“I trained truly hard for that one, in particular the cardio base for the reason that we knew it was gonna be my 1st five-round combat, and I know that I have greater conditioning than Jan,” Rakic said. “The plan was to pick him apart. Immediately after the next spherical to see how things were being going, to operate on the takedowns, to get him worn out, and then to combine matters up in the stand up.

“Because I felt previously commencing of the third round he was now a minor bit slower, he was respiratory weighty, and if you rewatch the fight, my palms were being a lot quicker than in the initial spherical. So it took me a although to put the heartbeat up, but the strategy was to set the struggle as prolonged as attainable, to drag him to the deep waters and acquire by tension and then it’s possible TKO or submission.”