Aleksandar "Rocket" Rakic defeated Anthony "Lionheart" Smith in the main event of UFC Vegas 8. Despite winning the bout by unanimous decision, many fans don't seem to be in a hurry to see the Austrian-born fighter back in the Octagon. Here, we're going to take a look at whether Rakic's stock has actually fallen from the weekend's events.
Before I go on, yes, I do understand that a win is a win and regardless of how you get it, it looks the same on your record. However, in my opinion, Rakic did not do enough to warrant him having a claim for the next title-shot. Whilst Rakic won the bout on all three of the judges' scorecards in a controlled and, let's face it, safe display, at no point did the 28-year-old fighter attempt to finish the fight.
In the first round, Rakic came out straight away and begun blasting Smith with powerful leg-kicks. These were evidently wearing on his American opponent, and Lionheart fell to the ground late on in the first. From that moment on, it was clear that we would not be seeing a typical Aleksandar Rakic performance.
Going into the second and third rounds, the story remained the same. Despite Smith being clearly compromised, Rakic would land the take-down, and then spend the rest of the round controlling the position, but not land any considerable damage in the process. Aleksandar amassed an impressive 12 minutes and 16 seconds of ground time in the 15 minutes of action. So, sounds great right? Not exactly.
Whilst I would love to live in a world where number one fights number two and etc, etc, we don't. We live in a world which is ruled by Dana White, and he demands blood and chaos. It is very unlikely that the man to face the winner of Reyes vs Blachowicz will be Rakic. White has been publicly critical about fighters who he deemed to of "played it safe" in the past, meaning the UFC president may not have been impressed by the performance.
This was a stark contrast to the type of displays we are used to seeing out of the American Top Team talent. He had finished 9 of his 12 wins heading into the bout, and fans were excited to see what surely had to be a great fight. It definitely did not live up to expectations and was ultimately a disappointing end to an otherwise great night of action.
Now, I just want to touch on something that bugged me personally. During the final 10 seconds, did he empty the tank and leave it all out there in the cage? No. He jumped and ran around the cage with his arms in the air like he'd just won a five-round war. I just don't think it's a good look. In a fight where he has failed to make any lasting impression, this was not the play, and it certainly won't be winning him any fans.
Rakic remains confident that he is in line for a title shot, saying post-fight "You know what's next. The belt is next. Reyes vs Blachowicz winner, it's me. That's the next one. That is next for Aleksandar Rakic." I wouldn't be too confident, and I would not be surprised if Rocket had to compete at least once more before being granted a crack at the title.
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