Aleksandar
Rakic’s night ended in unfortunate fashion at
UFC on ESPN 36, as a knee injury resulted in a third-round TKO
defeat to Jan
Blachowicz in Saturday’s headliner at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas.
As it turns out, the injury was not completely unfamiliar to the
American Top Team-trained Austrian, who revealed in a post-fight
statement that it was a reoccurrence of something that had affected
him during camp.
“A great battle took place in the Octagon tonight but
unfortunately, it ended not the way Jan and I or the fans wanted,”
Rakic wrote on Instagram. “The same damn injury from [three] weeks
ago in camp showed up again tonight.”
Prior to the injury, Rakic felt that he deserved to be ahead on the
scorecards in what was shaping up to be a competitive fight.
“I felt I won both rounds, round one being close but round two was
just mine then I opened up really good even in the third before my
knee buckled,” he wrote. “Knowing the fact that my cardio was off
the chart (with a heartbeat at 36 in sleep) I would start to
picking him apart from third round on but it is what it is.
Congratulation to Jan and I wish him the best. I will take care of
this injury and come back like you never seen me before. This is a
unfinished fight between Jan and I and I really hope [UFC] gives me
a REMATCH.”
It’s currently unclear how long Rakic will be sidelined as he
recovers from the injury. The 30-year-old is 6-2 in the UFC, with
notable wins against Thiago
Santos, Anthony
Smith and Jimi
Manuwa.