Will Canadians Get To See Rakić At UFC 297 In Jan 2024?
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By Noan Gagnon
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Summary
- Błachowicz vs. Rakić fight at UFC 297 cancelled after Błachowicz confirms injury
- Rakić calls out former champ Jiri Prochazka but Jiri says he is unable to fight in Jan
- Will Rakić stay on the Toronto card and who could be his replacement opponent?
UFC 297 will be the first pay per view card for the UFC in 2024 and it will go down at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Jan 20. UFC 297 was initially expected to be headlined by a featherweight fight between Alex Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria but that fell through as Volkanovski will only able to fight in Feb after his TKO.
Canadian fans won’t be too disappointed as the UFC has confirmed two title fights with UFC middleweight champ Sean Strickland defending his belt against top contender Dricus du Plessis and the co-main event will see Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva fight to see who will become the new bantamweight champion.
Błachowicz vs. Rakić Cancelled
One of the top fights on the main card was a rematch in the lightheavyweight division between former champ Jan Błachowicz and Aleksandar Rakić. This fight will not take place as Błachowicz recently confirmed that he was dealing with an injury and will not be able to fight.
Rakić who last fought in May 2024 and injured himself during the fight against Błachowicz said he was keen on staying on the UFC 297 card and called for former champ Jiri Prochazka to step up and replace Błachowicz. Jiri responded quickly and said he was willing to fight Rakić but would not be able to get ready in time for UFC 297 but could fight in Feb or March.
Potential Replacement Fighters For Rakić
We don’t know if the UFC will decide to pull Rakić from the UFC 297 card or keep him on it and find a replacement fighter. Rakić is currently ranked in 5th place and does not have a lot of options as almost everyone in the top 10 are either scheduled to fight or injured.
The two potential opponents could be Nikita Krylov who is ranked 6 or the dangerous Khalil Rountree Jr. who just beat the 8th ranked Anthony Smith on Dec 9 and should break into the top 10 rankings this week. The Rountree fight will be a banger but we don’t know if Rountree will be willing to take a short turn around fight as of now.
