A light-heavyweight fight between Aleksander Rakic and Thiago Santos has been scheduled for UFC Fight Night 191 on March 6th.
Rakic is currently on the cusp of title contention at 205lbs after a unanimous decision win over former title challenger Anthony Smith back in August that’s left him ranked No.4 in the division.
Rakic had lost a very close split decision to Volkan Oezdemir prior to that, but overall he’s compiled a 5-1 record in the UFC to date and 28-years-old the best could well still be to come for the Austrian fighter.
As for Santos, it was only in July of last year that he challenged Jon Jones for the light-heavyweight title and only narrowly lost out by split decision.
That title opportunity had been the culmination of an impressive four-fight winning streak that had seen him earn wins over Kevin Holland, Eryk Anders, Jimi Manuwa and Jan Blachowicz, the latter three of which he stopped by strikes.
However, since the loss to Jones he spent the best part of 18 months on the sidelines due to knee injuries and then suffered a third round submission loss to Glover Teixeira upon his return to action last weekend.
As such, Santos is surprisingly not even featured on the 205lb rankings at this moment in time and so this will be a crucial fight for him to re-establish himself as a major force in the division.
Rakic vs. Santos is currently the only fight booked for UFC Fight Night 191.
