"I was really in pain" - Aleksandar Rakic discusses battling staph infection on his elbow just one week before UFC 300 fight against Jiri Prochazka

Aleksandar Rakic returned to the octagon after a 23-month layoff in hopes of scoring the biggest win of his career against former champion Jiri Prochazka at UFC 300. However, he suffered a second-round TKO loss which derailed his quest for a title shot.

It turns out that Rakic contracted a staph infection during the fight week. Although it affected him during the fight week, the 32-year-old admitted to feeling much better during the weigh-ins and on fight night.

In a recent episode of the UFC 300 vlog series on his personal YouTube channel, Rakic shed light on his battle with the staph infection:

"I was very relaxed the whole time, except for Wednesday and Thursday when the elbow got infected. It worried me a bit, of course, and I was really in pain on Wednesday. I was really afraid that the doctor from the UFC would cancel my fight, that would really have been a no-go. I probably would have fought with one hand. I was given very strong antibiotics."

According to 'Rocket', the UFC doctor instructed him to get an antibiotic infusion on Thursday of the fight week and his condition improved after that. While he still felt the effects of the staph infection and got tired soon while training and doing the pre-fight drills, he misinterpreted those symptoms as an effect of the weight cut.

Catch Rakic's comments below (9:21):

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Aleksandar Rakic does not blame staph infection for his UFC 300 loss against Jiri Prochazka

Aleksandar Rakic started his UFC 300 fight aggressively and executed a solid gameplan to outmaneuver the unorthodox Jiri Prochazka. The Austrian invested heavily in slicing leg kicks and used effective footwork to avoid getting dragged into a chaotic fight that Prochazka would've thrived in.

However, the former champion's punches found home in Round 2 with more accuracy, which started the sequence that led to the TKO finish.

While explaining his gameplan for the fight in the aforementioned episode of the UFC 300 vlog series, Rakic said:

"The plan was to really step on the gas every second of the fight to win the first round. Because it was only a three-round fight. I went in for the broke. The second round started well until he hit me with the left-right combo." [10:30]

Rakic admitted that he could not recover after getting hurt and added:

"I don't want to use the staph infection as an excuse now that I lost. No, it's not what I am saying. It obviously affected me a bit in my opinion and I could not exploit my 100 percent potential. Again, it's not an excuse."

Rakic has gone 2-3 in his five most recent UFC appearances. However, two of his recent losses came against former champions Jan Blachowicz and Jiri Prochazka while he was coming off major injuries and long layoffs. Despite the two-year layoff before his UFC 300 appearance, Rakic seemed to show no ring rust.