Aleksandar Rakic suffered torn ACL in loss to Jan Blachowicz, set to undergo surgery
Aleksandar Rakic suffered a torn ACL in his UFC Vegas 54 main event fight against Jan Blachowicz.
Rakic was fighting for the first time in over a year as he was waiting for the right fight to return. He got the fight he wanted as he was facing the former champ and had he won, he likely would’ve fought for UFC gold next time out. However, the bout did not go his way as it was competitive after two rounds but Blachowicz was landing heavy leg kicks and in the third round, his knee gave out and the fight was stopped.
After the loss, Rakic took to Instagram where he revealed he had hurt his knee three weeks before the fight but knew he couldn’t pull out.
“A great battle took place in the octogan tonight but unfortunately it ended not the way Jan and I or the fans wanted. The same damn injury from 3 weeks ago in camp showed up again tonight. 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,” Rakic had written on Instagram.
Now, after the injury, it was reported by Ariel Helwani that Aleksandar Rakic suffered a torn ACL in the loss and he will need to undergo surgery. A date for the surgery has not been determined, and usually, it takes about 8-12 months to rehab and return from a torn ACL.
With the loss, Aleksandar Rakic dropped to 14-3 and has his two-fight win streak snapped. Prior to the loss to Blachowicz, he had beaten Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith by decision. The Austrian is now 6-2 inside the Octagon with his other loss coming by split decision to Volkan Oezdemir. He also has wins over Jimi Manuwa, Devin Clark, Justin Ledet, and Francimar Barroso in the UFC.
