Athletes
Aleksandar Rakić | Refueled ‘Rocket’ Ready To Take Off
Veteran Contender Talks Move To Heavyweight, Competing In Serbia For The First Time
Weight-cutting has always been a part of combat sports, regardless of the discipline or level. Boxers, wrestlers, mixed martial artists and everyone else, whether in their early days or plying their trade at the highest level, have almost always subjected themselves to the rigors of dropping pounds on the way to competing; taxing their bodies to hit a prescribed number on a scale before doing everything they can to refuel themselves prior to stepping into battle.
It’s a practice that seems counter-productive and archaic to those looking on from the outside who haven’t been surrounded by it throughout their combat sports journey, but of late, more and more competitors are beginning to do away with the arduous cuts that previously were viewed as a means to gaining an advantage and opting to fight at a much more natural weight.
“I’m cutting weight already 20 years,” began Aleksandar Rakić, the long-tenured light heavyweight who makes the shift to the heavyweight division this weekend in a bout with divisional mainstay Marcin Tybura as part of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main card at Belgrade Arena. “I started with kickboxing at 14, and even at that time, I was cutting one, two kilos. Year by year, I’m growing, becoming heavier. The last cuts were 38, 39 pounds in total.
“I’m pretty good at cutting weight, but still, the body remembers that and after every weight cut, I need another two months to recover from the weight cut,” continued the 34-year-old, explaining the main reason for his relocating to heavyweight. “I worked with the doctors and they told me, ‘It’s not the healthiest cutting weight anymore because you want to have a life after the career.’ And let’s be honest: I am not a small guy.
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“I was a big light heavyweight, I have the height, I have the reach, I have the weight, and I don’t have any issue with my strength. I just have benefits of my speed, my explosiveness, my agility, so I just see benefits moving up.
“And I’m enjoying Fight Week finally!” he added with a laugh. “I’m enjoying every second! I eat what I want. I can drink when I want. I go to training full of energy. I’m enjoying every second of it.”
There has been a wave of talent from the light heavyweight division testing the waters at heavyweight of late, including two-time champion Alex Pereira, and everyone approaches the shift differently.
For Rakić, competing at heavyweight is just an extension of the life he’s been living outside of competition for the last several years, with the only real change being that he’s no longer putting his body through lengthy periods of dieting and long stretches of recovery on the back end. He’s been training at this weight, knows what it’s like to move and operate at this weight, and now he’ll simply step into the Octagon armed and ready to perform the same way on Saturday.
“This is like you have a Ferrari, but you have a small amount of gasoline inside,” he said jokingly (but not really) about going through an entire training camp and detracting from your body’s capabilities bit-by-bit in the final days and weeks before competing. “I’ve been training always with this weight, so it’s nothing new for me. I know when I can push, how hard I can push.”
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And push he will have to do as both he and Tybura will hit the Octagon with something to prove on Saturday night.
While his results are not the primary catalyst for this move, everything works in concert in a situation like this, and Rakić has simply not been performing his best in recent years. An eight-fight winning streak on the regional circuit earned him a call to the Octagon, where he quickly rattled off four straight wins before landing on the wrong side of a debated split decision verdict in a bout with former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir.
Consecutive wins over Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos not only got Rakic moving in the right direction again, but steadied him in the rankings, setting up a bout with ex-champ Jan Blachowicz, which is where everything started to go awry.
Full Fight | Aleksandar Rakić vs Anthony Smith
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Full Fight | Aleksandar Rakić vs Anthony Smith
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Early in the third round of that fight, Rakić suffered a knee injury that would sideline him for well over a year. When he returned at UFC 300, he was stopped by Jiri Prochazka, and six months later, he dropped a decision to Magomed Ankalaev. One year after that, he stepped in with then-unbeaten Russian Azamat Murzakanov at UFC 321, falling once again.
“Oh man — I’ve been through a dark time, heavy time in my last years,” Rakic said, reflecting on his extended losing streak, which has left his record at 14-6 heading into this weekend’s pairing with Tybura. “I fought the best of the best in the light heavyweight division, and I was not always 100 percent, but it doesn’t matter. Everybody loses in a lifetime, and the guys who retired undefeated, they would lose at some point also.
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“I think it’s better if you’re fighting and winning, and then losing and coming back, winning, and maybe win the title,” he continued, finding a positive spin to put on his recent struggles. “This is a great story, and it shows you what you are made for; if you are mentally strong enough to overcome this because let’s be honest: the people like winners; nobody likes losers.
“This is part of the game, and my last win is five years ago,” added Rakić. “I will give everything for the victory on Saturday night, especially in front of my home crowd. I’m ready to put on a good fight and to win, to make myself happy and put this pressure off my shoulders, because there is a lot of pressure coming off a four-fight losing streak.
“Marcin comes from a two-fight losing streak, so he will be motivated to get the win, but he can’t be motivated more than me because I have two losses more than him.”
In addition to having more concurrent setbacks than his Polish adversary serving as fuel this weekend, Rakić has the added push of competing in Serbia for the first time.
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Though he was born and raised in Austria, Rakić is of Serbian heritage and spent many holidays making the journey between the two. He’s been doing it with great frequency again in recent years, having shifted much of his preparation to this weekend’s host nation, and now, he’s made the trek to Belgrade to take part in the UFC’s initial fight card in the Serbian capital.
“The first time in my life I’m competing in Serbia,” he said with a smile, clearly thrilled with the opportunity in front of him. “I grew up in Austria, I was born there, but I never felt Austrian. I have Serbian blood, we lived in a Serbian traditional way in Austria, but Serbia and Austria is not far — like five hours away by car — so I spent every holiday there.
“Coming here, for the first time fighting in front of my home crowd — just to think about it, I have goosebumps. The support I get (is incredible) and the sport is getting bigger and bigger day-by-day, and I think now, when UFC comes for the first time to Serbia, it will only be better and better.”
And after five years without a win and changing divisions, there is nothing Rakić wants more than to deliver a strong performance on Saturday night in front of his people, and to finally step out of the Octagon with his hand raised in victory once again.
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“They can expect a healthy Aleksandar Rakić, healthy “Rocket” who is not suffering before the fight,” he said with a laugh when asked what fans should expect to see when he unveils his heavyweight form for the first time. “I’m enjoying every moment, I’m really focused on the fight, but I also don’t put any extra pressure on myself. Fighting in Serbia, in front of my country is enough pressure already, so I don’t put any extra pressure on myself.
“I’m confident, I had a great camp, and I’m ready for it. I just need to be focused and doing what I’ve done these last months, and there is no doubt I am getting my hand raised.”
UFC Fight Night: Medić vs Rodriguez took place live from Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, Serbia on August 1, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!