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Blachowicz vs. Rakic will now serve as the main event of the UFC Fight Night event on May 14, 2022. The card is expected to be at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jan Blachowicz and Aleksandar Rakic both plan to include themselves in the UFC Light Heavyweight title picture, but only one will be able to do so on Saturday night.
Former champions Blachowicz and Rakic will face off at the Fight Night main event at the UFC Apex Institute in Las Vegas, with the bout winners likely to line up to face the winner of the June title race.
For Blachowicz, this will be his first fight since dropping the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at Glover Teixeira last October. The Polish fighter, a former KSW champion, defeated Dominic Reiss to claim the vacant title in the wake of John Jones leaving the ballot and being out of the division in 2020.
Blachowicz once defended the title, defeating last year's middleweight champion Israel Adisania by a unanimous decision - thwarting "The Last Style Bender" 's bid to become two-division champions.
Rakic (14-2) has won back-to-back fights against top light heavyweights Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith. The only spot on his record during his UFC run was the controversial decision to split Volkan Oezdemir in 2019.
Overall, Rakic's biggest enemy of late has been activated, or lack thereof - he has fought only once in the last two years.
Reigning champion Glover Taxira is set to defend his title against Jerry Prochazka at UFC 275 in Singapore this June. This could leave Blachowicz vs. Rakic the winner in the first position to claim a shot at the winner.
The UFC's May 14, 2022, Fight Night event, meanwhile, now includes the following reported competition:
UFC Fight Night Full card
Main card
Jan Blachowicz vs Aleksandar Rakic (light heavyweight)
Ryan Spann vs Ion Cutelaba (light-heavyweight)
Davey Grant vs Louis Smolka (bantamweight)
Katlyn Chookagian vs Amanda Ribas (women’s flyweight)
Frank Camacho vs Manuel Torres (lightweight)
Jake Hadley vs Allan Nascimento (flyweight)
Prelims
Viviane Araujo vs Andrea Lee (women’s flyweight)
Michael Johnson vs Alan Patrick (lightweight)
Virna Jandiroba vs Angela Hill (women’s strawweight)
