Smith vs. Rakic Elevated to Three-Round Main Event for UFC Fight Night 175 on Aug. 29

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 252 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.

Advertisement

Anthony Smith vs. Aleksandar Rakic will now serve as the main event for UFC Fight Night 175 on Aug. 29.

The promotion announced on Saturday night that the light heavyweight clash was elevated to headlining status following the cancellation of the orginally planned feature bout, Yair Rodriguez vs. Zabit Magomedsharipov. Smith vs. Rakic will remain a three-round contest.

UFC Fight Night 175 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and also includes a welterweight showdown between Robbie Lawler and Neil Magny. The card will stream on ESPN+.

A former light heavyweight title challenger, Smith is coming off a fifth-round technical knockout loss to Glover Teixeira in the UFC Fight Night 171 headliner on May 13. “Lionheart” has earned wins over Alexander Gustafsson, Volkan Oezdemir, Mauricio Rua and Rashad Evans since moving up to 205 pounds from middleweight.

The 28-year-old Rakic had a 12-bout professional winning streak halted in a narrow split-decision loss to Oezdemir at UFC Fight Night 165 on Dec. 21. The Austria native began his Octagon tenure with triumphs over Francimar Barroso, Justin Ledet, Devin Clark and Jimi Manuwa.