On Saturday night, UFC on ESPN 36 is set for the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, headlined by a light heavyweight tilt between one-time UFC and KSW Light Heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz and Aleksandar Rakic. This was rescheduled from a prior weekend due to an injury to Blachowicz, but he has recovered and the fight is on for Saturday. The co-headliner is also a light heavyweight bout, featuring Ion Cutelaba and Ryan Spann. As always, we have your full fight card as well as some UFC betting suggestions for the two main dustups.
UFC on ESPN 36: Blachowicz vs Rakic Preview
Main Card (ESPN2 / ESPN+)
- Jan Blachowicz vs Aleksandar Rakic (Light Heavyweight)
- Ryan Spann vs Ion Cutelaba (Light Heavyweight)
- Davey Grant vs Louis Smolka (Bantamweight)
- Katlyn Chookagian vs Amanda Ribas (Women’s Flyweight)
- Frank Camacho vs Manuel Torres (Lightweight)
- Jake Hadley vs Allan Nascimento (Flyweight)
Preliminary Card (ESPN2 / ESPN+)
- Viviane Araujo vs Andrea Lee (Women’s Flyweight)
- Michael Johnson vs Alan Patrick (Lightweight)
- Vima Jandiroba vs Angela Hill (Women’s Strawweight)
- Tatsuro Taira vs Carlos Candelario (Flyweight)
- Nick Maximov vs Andre Petroski (Middleweight)
Jan Blachowicz (28-9, 11-6 UFC, +155) vs Aleksandar Rakic (14-2, 6-1 UFC, -180) is Blachowicz’s latest stop in a journey that has taken him to the top of his division and currently finds him at a crossroads when it comes to returning to contender status. He started a four-fight winning streak in 2019 that concluded with a knockout of Dominick Reyes to take the title. He followed that up with a decision win over Israel Adesanya, an upset victory on the cards over the UFC Middleweight champion. However, Blachowicz followed that up with a loss to Glover Teixeira, who used a pressure-based approach to tap Blachowicz’s iffy cardio tank. After recovering from a neck injury, Blachowicz comes back in at the age of 39 to take on a rising contender.
Rakic got off to a strong start in UFC, taking down wily veteran Francimar Barroso in his promotional debut, and his breakout win came against Jimi Manuwa, who he knocked out with a head kick after just 47 seconds. He lost controversially on the cards to Volkan Oezdemir, and since then, his last two fights have been largely devoid of action, as he sits back, lets his opponent drive the action, and responds when necessary. This led to a win on the cards against Anthony Smith that was a slow grinder of a fight, and then he got into a slow exchange of kickboxing with Thiago Santos. He eased his way to a win again, but the excitement was not there.
Because both of these fighters tend to hang back and wait to counter, this could be difficult to watch. It could resemble Rakic’s placid win over Santos or some of Blachowicz’s less active fights. I think Rakic will take the fight to the ground, but even if things stay upright, Rakic has greater hand speed and a better kicking game at this point. In a close fight like this, I would normally suggest the moneyline value, but I don’t think Blachowicz will find enough openings to win.
Final Prediction:
Rakic wins via decision
Ryan Spann (19-7, 5-2 UFC, +180) vs Ion Cutelaba (16-6-1, 5-5-1 UFC, -220) will likely bring chaos, as that is the MO for both of these fighters. Cutelaba has had a roller coaster ride in UFC so far, thanks to his approach. He likes to start with pressure, both in wrestling and striking, but he would bring so much pressure so quickly that he would wear himself out and lose. A pair of quick losses against Magomed Ankalaev highlighted this flaw. He did make it to a draw against Dustin Jacoby, and when he beat Devin Clark in his last win, he finally showed a more measured approach, starting with the wrestling game and stacking up enough points to win easily on the cards.
Next up is a shot against Spann, who represents a higher level of talent than what Cutelaba has faced to this point. Spann last fought in a main event, where he lost to Anthony Smith, but his game has a lot of different elements that work together. He has speed, size and athleticism, and he has fast hands and aggression. Like Cutelaba, he tends to start really quickly but then run out of gas if he doesn’t finish his opponent We don’t know if Spann’s wrestling game is solid enough to beat Cutelaba. Given that both fighters wear out quickly, this looks like a bit more of a coin flip than the odds indicate.
Final Prediction:
Spann wins via stoppage
UFC Betting Odds
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