Aleksandar Rakic gave his thoughts on the upcoming light heavyweight title fight.
Rakic will look to become the next title challenger with a potential win over former champion Jan Blachowicz who he meets in a light heavyweight headliner on May 14.
Of course, the person currently in line is Jiri Prochazka who challenges current champion Glover Teixeira in the UFC 275 headliner taking place June 11 in Singapore.
For many observers, that’s a fight Prochazka should be winning as he is in his prime as well as a massive betting favorite. The Czech native has also been training with Henry Cejudo at the Fight Ready gym.
However, others believe Teixeira is durable enough to take whatever Prochazka gives him before taking the fight into deep waters.
What does Rakic think? He is going with the latter.
“I heard that he went there to train with Henry Cejudo but let’s be honest — you cannot learn wrestling in three weeks,” Rakic told Middle Easy. “You need to wrestle for many years… It’s gonna go either way. If Jiri doesn’t knock him out in the first, it’s going to be a long night for Jiri. Because Glover, man, this guy can take a punch. He keeps going forward and his wrestling and grappling is incredible and he’s very strong. Like I said, you need to wrestle a lot to be on a legit level and we didn’t see much wrestling or grappling from Jiri.
“I would go with Glover, not because of the wrestling and grappling, it’s also the striking. Jiri is a very aggressive striker but he opens up a lot. Against Volkan and against Reyes, he was rocked two times. … If this goes the favor of Glover, maybe Glover knocks him out. … Glover is the smarter guy, he faced so many good guys out there, he saw everything already. He’s in the game for a long time. So my bet would go to Glover.”
Aleksandar Rakic Has No Beef With Jiri Prochazka
Of course, many would think Rakic is siding with Teixeira because of his previous back-and-forth, or, beef with Prochazka.
However, the Austrian has nothing against Prochazka personally, as he believes it’s a case of two passionate European fanbases pitting them against each other.
With that said, he is still hoping to face Prochazka in the future — preferably somewhere in Europe.
“No hate to Jiri because the people think I hate him or something like that,” Rakic added. “… My country, where I live and where I’m from, and his country, they’re so small countries and we’re just one fighter from each country who made it in the top five of the UFC. The people recognize this and they love us. We have big support.
“… You never know what the future is going to be but 100 percent in the future, we’re going to fight somewhere. If this fight happens, it needs to be in Europe somewhere.”
You can watch the full interview below:
