The former light heavyweight champion, Jan Blachowicz was supposed to face Aleksandar Rakic at the main event of an upcoming UFC Fight Night. These two were supposed to face each other for the spot of the number one contender, and Jan was very much looking forward to bounce back from his loss against Glover Teixeira at the main event of UFC 267.
Jan posted a heartfelt message from his Instagram profile, explaining the reason behind this decision, he wrote, “I have some bad news for you guys. Unfortunately I will not fight on 26th of march at #UFCColumbus. I have an injury in my spine around the neck area and that makes it impossible for me to train with heavy weights. And you need to train with weights for a fight right? I need to fix that. The injury does not need an operation, I’m lucky because of this.”
“The whole thing is going to be mostly a rehabilitation process. @rehabilitacjalomianki will help me with this. They will make sure I get well in a couple of weeks and be fully operational. I hope my fight with Rakic will be moved later in time and we will meet in the octagon in the first half of this year.“
Aleksandar Rakic responds to Jan Blachowicz’s decision of pulling out from the fight
Rakic last fought in March of 2021, and he is the 3rd ranked light heavyweight on the UFC roster, he is on a two-fight win streak, and a win over former champ would have been extremely beneficial for his career. Soon after the news came, he took to Twitter to express his views, and he wrote, “Get well soon and fast recovery @JanBlachowicz See you later this year. All the best.”
He was challenged by his former opponent Anthony Smith, and he accepted that call-out, but when he got an opportunity to face the former champ, he moved away from that challenge. Now it would be interesting to see if instead of waiting for Jan, he decides to go out and face Smith one more time.
