Jan Blachowicz vs. Aleksandar Rakic rescheduled as UFC main event on May 14
A light heavyweight showdown between Jan Blachowicz and Aleksandar Rakic has been rescheduled for the upcoming UFC Fight Night card expected on May 14 in Las Vegas at the UFC APEX.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the news to MMA Fighting following an initial report from Ariel Helwani.
The fight was originally expected to take place in March but Blachowicz was forced out of the contest with an injury. Now healthy and ready to compete again, Blachowicz will return in May with hopes of getting back into title contention following his loss to reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira this past October.
Prior to that loss, Blachowicz had rattled off five consecutive wins including knockouts over Corey Anderson and Dominick Reyes as well as a decision victory against Israel Adesanya in a rare champion vs. champion fight.
As for Rakic, he’ll look to earn a signature win that could finally vault him into a UFC title fight.
With a 6-1 record overall, Rakic has been a top tier fighter in the light heavyweight division for quite some time but he took a huge step forward with back-to-back wins over Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos.
Now Rakic will seek to beat Blachowicz in May with hopes that he could potentially get a chance to face the winner of the upcoming title bout between Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka scheduled at UFC 275 on June 11.
With Blachowicz vs. Rakic set as the main event, more fights are expected to be added to the May 14 card in the coming weeks.
MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz contributed to this report.