UFC Vegas 54 Preview
The UFC will be returning to The Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday May 14 for UFC Vegas 54. The main event will have major title implications in the light heavyweight division as former champion #1 Jan Blachowicz will faceoff against #3 Aleksandr Rakic.
Blachowicz is trying to rebound from a title loss in his last fight at UFC 267 in October. He was defeated via second round submission by Glover Texeira, putting an end to his five-fight winning streak and an end to his run as champion. A win on Saturday could put him right back on track to capturing the title he once held. Texeira will be making his first defense as champion at UFC 275 against Jiri Prochazka in June.
The former champion feels lucky to be in this fight on Saturday after detailing a scary injury which caused a delay on the fight date. I wake up on one of the Mondays, and I feel a pain in my neck,” Blachowicz explained. “I think maybe I just slept bad, and that’s why I felt the pain. In the gym, we did some drills, and I took one shot on my guard, and I felt a really hard pain in my neck, and I cannot feel my left hand and left side of my body.
“It was completely off, paralyzed. Then I think, it’s not a normal pain. It’s something worse. I go to the doctor, we do an MRI and I have something [a disc] in my neck that puts pressure on the nerve. That’s why I had this feeling that I could not feel my left side.”
Blachowicz went on to say “It was scary,” he said. “You don’t know what happened. You can’t move your left hand. It was a weird feeling for me. A new thing, a scary thing.” After getting treatment from doctor’s he was forced to play the waiting game. “The doctor said we’ll see after three weeks [if you need surgery],” Blachowicz recounted. “If rehabilitation helps, then we don’t need surgery. If it doesn’t help, we’re going to have to do some surgery, but I’m a lucky guy. No surgery, just rehabilitation and medicine.
“They gave me some medicine, they put in my neck some medicine, four weeks of rehabilitation and I was ready to start my training again for 100 percent. I can train with that but only light technique, no sparring sessions, nothing hard. Just pads, bags, bikes, running something like this nothing hard. Four weeks of easy training and after four weeks of rehabilitation, I’m back to the gym and I started doing sparring sessions and everything at 100 percent. Now I’m healthy. I don’t feel pain, I feel good.”
The 38-year-old explained that he treated this injury differently than others in the past. “Maybe a couple of years, I would do everything to do this fight, but now, I’m a little bit older, a little bit smarter,” Blachowicz said. “I cannot do stuff like that. After my UFC career, there is still life to do, living with my son and stuff like this so now first of all, I have to be healthy and then I can fight.
“I will not risk my health to doing that. First of all, I need to be healthy and then I can do the fights.”
The Polish fighter concluded “Everything is OK. I don’t have to worry about that [injury],” Blachowicz said. “I don’t have to think about this. I’m still going for rehabilitation just to keep it safe. I spar, I’m doing jiu-jitsu, wrestling, everything I can do right now.”
Blachowicz has had a long-storied career thus far and putting himself back into the title conversation and potentially becoming a two-time champion will cement his legacy as one of the best light heavyweights of his era. He has key victories in his career over Israel Adesanya, Dominick Reyes, Corey Anderson, Ronaldo Souza, Luke Rockhold, Nikita Krylov, Jimi Manuwa and Jared Cannonnier.
Rakic is riding two straight victories into this fight over former title challengers Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith, both by unanimous decision. He is 6-1 in the UFC and a win over a former champion and #1 contender will put him in prime position to be the next challenger to the light heavyweight title.
The 30-year-old knows what is at stake in this fight. “I need to make a great performance, a dominant performance,” said Rakic.
The Austrian has not fought in over a year but explains the layoff was well worth it. “It was a long time without a fight, but that’s the reason I’m so hungry about Saturday. “I learned a lot in this year. I’m one year older, which means I’m one year smarter. I’m a better athlete. I put a lot of work, doing some short camps around the world.
Rakic went on to say, “This is the longest layoff since I’ve been in the UFC — 14 months away — but I’ve been working really hard the last year with the whole team. We’ve put a lot of work in and I’m a different athlete from the last time, and you will see this in my next fight.”
“The most important thing is to win,” said Rakic when asked about his last two triumphs, where the marauding, attacking style he showed in some of his earlier efforts was replaced by a grappling-heavy approach in the fight with Smith and patient, counter fighting tactics against the Brazilian powerhouse. “With Santos, it didn’t go like the fans are expecting it, but a win is a win. We knew that Santos was a dangerous counter-striker, so this was a tactical win.
“I fought big names already in my career. I’ve fought three former title challengers in a row, and now I’m fighting a former champion. I would like to put on a highlight reel performance, but you need two (people to make that happen), you know?”
Rakic knows he has to make the most out of a golden opportunity on Saturday. “This is the biggest fight of my career yet, fighting such a good guy — a veteran, an experienced guy; the former champion who beat Israel Adesanya,” he said of Blachowicz, who sports a 28-9 record and has victories in nine of his last 11 appearances. “I’m very happy that I have the opportunity to fight him; I love the challenge.
“We’re in the UFC — we’re the best in the world — and I want to show the people and the UFC that I’ve been training hard the last year and I’m able to fight with everyone in the world,” added the Austrian contender. “He is a former champion, he’s my biggest challenge — the biggest name I’m going to fight — and I’m so ready to go.”
The former kickboxer and boxer made his mark in the UFC with a highlight reel head kick KO of Jimi Manuwa in 2019, but a win by spectacular fashion over Blachowicz will make his mark in the light heavyweight title picture.
The rest of the main card:
Light Heavyweight - #13 Ryan Spann vs. Ion Cuțelaba
Bantamweight - Davey Grant vs. Louis Smolka
Women's Flyweight - #1 Katlyn Chookagian vs. #9 Amanda Ribas
Lightweight - Frank Camacho vs. Manuel Torres
Flyweight - Jake Hadley vs. Allan Nascimento
ESPN 2/ESPN+ Prelims:
Women's Flyweight - #8 Viviane Araújo vs. # 9 Andrea Lee
Lightweight - Michael Johnson vs. Alan Patrick
Women's Strawweight - #12 Virna Jandiroba vs. #13 Angela Hill
Flyweight - Tatsuro Taira vs. Carlos Candelario
Middleweight - Nick Maximov vs. Andre Petroski
