Aleksandar Rakić is moving to heavyweight this weekend, and the shift gives him a chance to fight without the punishing cuts that have shaped most of his career. He will face Marcin Tybura on Saturday night at UFC Fight Night in Belgrade Arena, a bout that changes the weight class but not the stakes.
The 34-year-old said he has been cutting weight for 20 years, since he began kickboxing at 14, and that his last cuts were 38 or 39 pounds in total. He said doctors told him the process is no longer healthy, especially because his body now needs another two months to recover after each one. For a fighter who has spent years shrinking himself to make light heavyweight, the move is less a leap than a release.
That is why Fight Week sounds different for Rakić now. He said he finally enjoys it because he can eat what he wants, drink when he wants and go to training full of energy. He has been training at this weight already, he said, and sees the move as a better fit for his frame, not a gamble with it.
Rakić said he is not a small guy and described himself as a big light heavyweight with the height, reach and weight for heavyweight. He said he has no issue with his strength, only the toll of draining himself over and over again. Weight cutting remains a long-standing part of combat sports, but more fighters are moving toward natural weights, and Rakić’s switch fits that drift.
The tension, though, is that comfort in camp does not answer what happens when the cage door closes. Rakić and Tybura both enter the Octagon with something to prove on Saturday night, and the heavyweight version of Rakić has yet to show how it holds up under real pressure. For now, the move ends one hard chapter and starts another, one that begins in Belgrade and will be judged by what happens after the opening bell.
