UFC Belgrade: Medic vs Rodriguez - Aug 1 🇷🇸

[wandshogun09]

The Octagon heads to Serbia for the first time…

PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD
Uros Medic vs Daniel Rodriguez 

Jan Blachowicz vs Navajo Stirling 

Marcin Tybura vs Aleksandar Rakic 

Dusko Todorovic vs Robert Valentin 

Vlasto Cepo vs Gilbert Urbina 

Milos Janicic vs Noah Gugnon

PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS
Ludovit Klein vs Tofiq Musayev

Michael Oliveira vs Oban Elliott 

Mark Vologdin vs Borislav Nikolic 

Bogdan Grad vs Dennis Buzukja 

Mateusz Rebecki vs Kyle Prepolec 

Nina Milosevic vs Hailey Cowan 

Jovan Leka vs Alexander Poppeck 

Marina Spasic vs Stephanie Luciano 

 

Two weeks on the bounce we get early start times! According to the UFC’s website, the prelims kick off at 3pm and the main card gets underway at 6pm. Card itself is nothing special but, with the nice start time, I’ll still probably whack it on live if I’m home. Bunch of debuting Serbians on there, couple of potential slugfests further up the card. It’ll do.

 

 

Uros Medic vs Daniel Rodriguez headlines. Not a fight that jumps out at you as a main event and I’m sure it’s gonna get shat all over on social media but whatever. The fight itself should be entertaining enough. And at #14 in the Welterweight rankings, Medic is probably the highest ranked of the few Serbians currently on the roster, so it does make sense to have him headline the UFC’s first show there. I don’t hate the fight. Neither are world beaters or future champs or anything but they both usually go for it and Medic being the hometown boy in a country that’s never had a UFC event before will surely mean the crowd will be mega into it. That always helps.

Medic is 33 years old with a record of 13-3 and all his wins came inside the distance. Mostly via knockout or TKO. He was on DWCS way back in 2020 and made his UFC debut in early 2021. He’s gone 7-3 in the Octagon since. Hasn’t blown anyone’s socks off really and he got finished in all three of his losses. But he’s been on a decent run of form recently and he’s coming into this fight on a three fight winning streak. He stopped Gilbert Urbina last August, then Muslim Salikhov in November, then in his last fight in February this year…

He put Geoff Neal to bed and tucked him in for good measure. Literally knocked the snot out of him as you can see there. All three of these wins were in the first round. I don’t think there’s too much to read into this little streak. Urbina isn’t much good, I like Salikhov but he’s getting up in age and has a shitload of miles on the clock, and Neal hasn’t looked at the races in a while and was coming off that horrible knockout loss to Carlos Prates when Medic got him. But still, Medic’s been getting it done in style and this is a great opportunity for him to shine and get a bit of spotlight in his first UFC main event and in front of a home crowd.

D-Rod is also on a three fight win streak. He’s beaten Alex Morono, Santiago Ponzinibbio and Kevin Holland in his last three fights but he hasn’t fought since July 2025 now. That’s because he was banged up for eight months in a Tijuana jail cell. Yep. From what I’ve read he was caught trying to cross the border into Mexico with some weed on him and they came down heavy treating it as a felony charge for smuggling.

Training MMA in jail. Pretty mad situation. Even weirder is that I read that his former opponent Kevin Holland was actually the one who bailed him out. I don’t know if that’s true but I’ve read it in a few places now and it seems to be accepted as fact. Apparently Holland’s reasoning for doing it was because he wanted a rematch with Rodriguez. Jesus wept. I’d understand if it was some huge money fight but if it happens it’s probably gonna be co-main on a Fight Night at best, isn’t it?

Anyway yeah, there we have it. Rodriguez is nothing special but he’s a scrappy, tough guy who should make for an entertaining enough fight with anyone who likes to strike. So him as Medic’s opponent here seems like a good fit on paper. Not sure who I’d favour. Like I said, Medic’s recent win streak isn’t quite as impressive as it looks at first glance but he has certainly been more active than D-Rod recently. Rodriguez has some better name wins on his record and I do recall enjoying that Holland fight last time. But stopping the beat up 2025 version of Ponzinibbio isn’t that meaningful a win these days either. All that said, I think it’s a well matched fight. I’d be surprised if it’s boring and we’ll probably get a finish either way.

 

Jan Blachowicz vs Navajo Stirling has been cobbled together as co-main just a couple of weeks out. Blachowicz was originally supposed to rematch Bogdan Guskov on this card, after they went to a draw at UFC 323 in December. But Khalil Rountree dropping out of the Abu Dhabi main event the week before this card forced a shuffle. Blachowicz was offered the chance to step in against Magomed Ankalaev, declined because he didn’t think he could make the weight a week earlier than planned, then decided he was gonna try but by then the UFC had been on the blower to Guskov and he accepted the Ank fight immediately. So big Jan stayed on this card with a ‘TBA’ opponent. Stirling answered the call. He’s 28 years old, from New Zealand and he’s undefeated at 10-0 with 6 knockouts. Hasn’t beat anyone of real note yet. His best win to date is his TKO over Ion Cutelaba last time out in June. But I think this is a gamble worth taking. Yeah, facing a former UFC champ in Blachowicz is a huge step up and it’s short notice. He could potentially suffer his first loss under shitty circumstances here. But Blachowicz is also 43 years old and the last thing I read about him before he was linked to this show was that he’d fucked his meniscus. So that was sometime between his last fight in December and now. At 43 years old. It’s not looking great is it? Now he’s facing a man 15 years his junior, who’s unbeaten and just fought a few weeks ago. I’m not fully sold on Stirling and there’s every chance Blachowicz simply old mans him here and shows the difference in levels. But I’ve got a bad feeling about this for him.

 

Marcin Tybura vs Aleksandar Rakic isn’t doing it for me. Tybura seems to be on his last legs and Rakic has never lived up to the potential some thought he had when he came into the UFC in 2017. The only kind of intrigue to this one is that Rakic is moving up to Heavyweight. At 34 he’s no spring chicken but, in theory, he’s still got some time. Especially in a clown show of a division like Heavyweight where age isn’t such a factor. Not sure how he’s gonna do at HW but he’s 6’5” and built like a Hasbro. He might have the frame for it. Thing is, he’s on a four fight losing streak, which included a knee injury and a two year layoff in amongst the losses. He hasn’t had a win since 2021 and he hasn’t scored a finish since that horrific headkick KO against Jimi Manuwa in Sweden back in 2019. All that plus he got knocked out by a short punch by Azamat Murzakanov in his last fight, who’s an undersized Light Heavyweight. Yeah, I’m not convinced this Heavyweight move is gonna work out for him. Feels more like a desperation move to me. Although he might win this particular fight. Tybura’s 40 and coming off back-to-back losses himself. He got sparked in two minutes by Ante Delija and then outwrestled to the scorecards by Tyrell Fortune last time out. Fuck knows with this? I just hope it’s not a stinker.

 

Dusko Todorovic vs Robert Valentin. Nothing burger. Todorovic is Serbian so there’s that. He’s not very good really though. He’s 32 years old and 13-6 with 12 finishes. He’s been in the UFC since 2020 and done nothing memorable in that six years. Looking at his record (because I couldn’t tell you anything about it off the top of my head), he was on a three fight losing skid before finally getting a win over Jose Medina in September. But Medina’s genuinely one of the worst fighters on the roster. And Valentin might be even shitter. He’s Swiss, 31 years old, 11-6-0-1 and coming off a submission win over some fucker called Julien Leblanc on the Winnipeg show in April. He’d gone 0-3 in his first three UFC fights before that. This is ham and egger vs ham and egger. It’s like if instead of WCW feeding jobbers to Vader or Sid in the 90s, they put the jobbers against each other.

 

Vlasto Cepo vs Gilbert Urbina. Not a clue. I’ve seen Urbina a few times and he’s arse. He’s 30 years old, 7-4 and got ironed out in about a minute by Uros Medic a full year ago in his last fight. His last fight before that was early 2024 and he got stopped in a round by Charles Radtke. Make no mistake, this fight has been put together with the idea of Urbina getting crushed. Cepo’s another Serbian, this is his UFC debut and he’s 31 years old and 14-3 with a 100% finish rate. Nothing stands out as remarkable from his MMA record. I see he did go to a draw with Hector Lombard in a Boxing match in 2023 though, whatever that’s worth.

 

Milos Janicic vs Noah Gugnon. Both making their UFC debut. Never seen or heard of either guy. Janicic is Serbian, 29 years old, 19-3 with 19 finishes and he’s on an eight fight winning streak. He’s coming off a first round TKO over former UFC fighter Alex ‘Cowboy’ Oliveira and he’s previously fought in KSW and Oktagon. Gugnon’s French, 25 years old and 9-2 with 9 finishes. So both have 100% finishing rates. I’ll give it a go.

 

Ludovit Klein vs Tofiq Musayev. We’re not exactly spoiled for choice on this card but I’m going with this as ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. It’s the fight that stands out the most to me from the undercard anyway. Klein usually brings it and Musayev’s last fight was a bit of a dogfight as well. I like this pairing.

Klein’s Slovakian, 31 years old and has a record of 24-5-1 with 17 finishes. Really good fighter, has some beautiful striking for MMA, I feel like he’s a bit under-appreciated really and goes under the radar. And he’s not even in the Lightweight rankings! He’s only lost one of his last nine fights and that was a decision against Mateusz Gamrot. Has wins over Mason Jones, Ignacio Bahamondes, Thiago Moises and in his last fight in October he beat Mateusz Rebecki in an absolute bloodbath.

I’m not as familiar with Musayev but, like I said, his last fight against Bahamondes on the Seattle card in March was a bit of a war. He’s from Azerbaijan, 36 years old and 23-6 with 20 finishes, 18 by knockout or TKO. Got subbed by Myktybek Orolbai in his UFC debut but bounced back with the decision over Bahamondes. Really good scrap. From what I remember, Musayev won pretty clearly in terms of scoring but I do recall him being a bit of a dirty fucker as well. Think there was some fence grabbing and a headbutt in there. Hopefully none of that from Musayev this time. Musayev’s probably gonna try to make it ugly and Klein’s gonna try to bust him up with clean striking. I’d like to see Klein come out on top, hopefully with a finish because he’s been going to a lot of decisions in the UFC.

 

Michael Oliveira vs Oban Elliott. Never seen Oliveira and this is his UFC debut but looking him up, he’s Brazilian, 28 years old and undefeated at 9-0 with 8 knockouts. Hasn’t beat anyone recognisable to me but got a TKO win on DWCS back in October, that was his ticket into the UFC and here we are. Wales’ Elliott is also 28 and has a record of 12-4. He’s struggling at this point. He got off to a decent start in the UFC, racking up three straight wins. But he’s lost his last two on the trot now and is coming into this fight off the back of a submission loss to Jonathan Micallef on the Sydney card in January. Harsh throwing him in with an unbeaten knockout artist when he’s coming off back-to-back losses. Makes me think the matchmakers don’t see much in Elliott and are looking at him as cannon fodder for their new undefeated Brazilian signing.

 

Mark Vologdin vs Borislav Nikolic is a late change. Vologdin’s original opponent Josias Musasa withdrew about a week out from this card. Hometown boy and former BRAVE champ Nikolic steps in on short notice. He’s from Belgrade, 33 years old and 16-2 with 15 finishes. Only name I recognise off his record is Brad Katona and Katona subbed him back in 2021. Nikolic is coming into this fight on a six fight win and finish streak now though. Vologdin’s Russian, 26 years old and has a record of 12-4-2 with 10 of his wins not requiring the judges input. He lost on DWCS in October but got a UFC contract anyway because his fight on there was apparently a corker. Made his UFC debut on the Winnipeg card in April and went to a draw with John Castaneda in what I remember being another fun scrap. So he’s 0-1-1 in his last couple of fights but if he keeps putting on bangers then I don’t hate them keeping him around for a bit.

 

Bogdan Grad vs Dennis Buzukja is a clash of recent devastating KO victims. Grad was last seen getting his jaw spun by Luke Riley on the Qatar card in November. And Buzukja got obliterated by the left hook of Marcio Barbosa on the Winnipeg card in April this year. Seriously, go back and have a look at both finishes. Two of the most vicious knockouts you’ll find in the UFC over the last year. Anyway, Grad’s Austrian, 30 years old and 15-4 with 12 finishes. Buzukja’s 28 with a 12-6 record and 6 finishes.

 

Mateusz Rebecki vs Kyle Prepolec. Don’t know but chances are Rebecki is gonna get juice. The sod probably bleeds if a strong wind hits him. He’s the new Darren Elkins. Seriously, go back through his fights. The Ferreira, Orolbai, Duncan and Klein ones were all brutal and must’ve legitimately knocked years off the bloke’s life. He’s coming off a submission loss to Grant Dawson in May here. That fight was less brutal, he didn’t take such a beating in that one as his previous four. But still, he’s at the point now where he’s 1-4 in his last 5 fights. Desperate times. Can’t remember much about Prepolec. He’s Canadian, 36 years old and 18-10. He’s gone winless in his two UFC fights so far. Got subbed by Benoit Saint Denis in his debut, then got kicked in the bollocks before being TKO’d by Drew Dober on the Vancouver card in October.

 

Nina Milosevic vs Hailey Cowan. Never seen Milosevic before but, you guessed it, she’s Serbian! She’s gonna turn 30 a week after this fight and she’s 8-1 with 5 finishes. Lost her MMA debut by split decision in 2023 and has been winning ever since. No idea who any of the women she beat are though, or how good or bad they are. Cowan’s 34 years old and 7-5. She was on DWCS in 2022, her UFC debut got delayed twice due to cancellations, finally debuted but missed weight and then lost to Jamey-Lyn Horth, more fight cancellations meant she didn’t fight again until two years later, got subbed by Nora Cornolle, another year layoff and then she got knocked out by a knee from Alice Pereira. Christ. 0-3 in the UFC, weight misses, a load of pullouts. Another loss here could well be it for her. That’s if she even shows up.

 

Jovan Leka vs Alexander Poppeck then. Not a clue. This was supposed to be Leka against Max Gimenis but Gimenis dropped out a couple of weeks before show time. So now we’ve got two Octagon newcomers facing off. Leka’s Serbian, 13-2 with 11 ending inside the distance. No-one of note on his record. Tapology has him listed as 24 years old. I’m gonna need to see the birth certificate. Life must be rough in Serbia. Poppeck is jumping in on late notice. He’s German, 34 years old and has a record of 21-5-0-1 with 14 finishes. He actually lost to Jamahal Hill on DWCS back in 2019. More recently he’s been fighting in Oktagon and he’s gone unbeaten in his last six fights.

 

Marina Spasic vs Stephanie Luciano. Another UFC debut, another Serbian. Spasic’s 32 with a record of 7-1, 6 by KO or TKO. Don’t recognise any of the names on her record but, despite coming off a win via body shot, she’s 1-1 in her last two. The UFC are clearly only bringing her in because they wanted some home fighters for this card. Luciano’s Brazilian, 26 years old and 7-2-1. She made her UFC debut in 2024 and has gone 2-1 since but it’s all been low level shite. She subbed Ravena Oliveira last time out.

 

 

Erm…yeah.

Edited July 27 by wandshogun09

[Carbomb]

For some reason I thought Uros Medic was a bit of a jobber, and I realised it's because of this:

 

[Egg Shen]

Couple of my customary random thoughts...

Feels like the UFC have proper cashed out on any buzz Oban Elliott had. He seemed to be destined for main card London slots, had a lot of buzz outside of the cage but he's fallen off. It appears they've thrown him in with a proper killer here.

Looking forward to the debut of Alexander Poppeck. One of those Oktagon main stays I got the know when I had that stink watching the promotion regular. Got a soft spot for all those names. Must get back into Oktagon.

[wandshogun09]

Bogdan Grad’s gone and turned up with hair and I can’t get used to it.

[Carbomb]

Looks like a blond Vito Corleone

[wandshogun09]

Some media bloke asked Dana which fight he’s most looking forward to on this card. A basic, low effort question but a perfectly fine one. Dana clearly has no clue who’s even on the card, can’t name anyone and looks embarrassed about it, so gets all arsey and calls it a shit question. A question about the UFC Belgrade card at the UFC Belgrade press conference. 

Fucking hilarious. It’s no secret or surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention, he’s been checked out for years. But the audacity to turn up to a press conference having not bothered to even look up the card, and then get angry when someone asks you about said card. Incredible. He clearly thought it’d be the usual series of mind numbing, mundane, repetitive questions that have nothing to do with the card itself. Zuffa Boxing, the ‘beef’ with Eddie Hearn, Conor McGregor and his injury etc. God forbid someone asks a question about the fights he’s there to promote! 

[Egg Shen]

Depressing innit. 

You compare that to Eddie Hearn? The passion he has for his roster and the way he promotes his shows, its night and day. Eddie rolls off cards months down the line at the drop of a hat.

 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, whatever people say about Eddie, he’s invested in his shows and seems to live and breathe the sport. He’ll be reeling off not just the next 9 cards, he’ll be rattling off the records of the guys in the second fight on the undercard and all sorts. You’d never see him get caught out on a question as basic as ‘which fight on the card are you most excited for?’

This gave me a chuckle…

On a side note, this woman is terrible. The most brain dead, pointless content dressed up as ‘MMA journalism’ you’ll ever see. Fans defend her and go ‘her content is great, just say you hate fun’ but it’s all absolute shite and they clearly just watch for her looks. The actual content is low IQ arse water. Why do I need to know what kind of underwear Dana leaves skid marks in? 

[wandshogun09]

Not convinced it’s gonna mean much because he’s been underwhelming his whole career, but Rakic certainly looks the part in his move up to Heavyweight…

This is no Alex Pereira just munching his way up in weight and coming in with love handles. Rakic looks solid. 

[Egg Shen]

Imagine he'll be about 240lbs, we need more heavyweights in and around that weight. I think Tybura's getting whooped.

[wandshogun09]

Remember the early start today if you’ve got nothing better to do with your Saturday…

Gone Medic, Blachowicz and Rakic in the poll. Main event feels like a bit of a coin flip to me. Not a great main event but it should be a decent enough scrap. Went with Medic just based on more recent activity and the possibility of the home crowd bringing something extra out of him. Co-main, on paper you’d think Stirling should be favoured with him being much younger, fresher, undefeated etc. But I’ve got a feeling Big Jan old mans him here. Also worth noting that Blachowicz was always in camp for this card, from back when the original Guskov fight was made. Stirling is the one who’s jumping in on short notice. Won’t be shocked if Stirling wins but I’m think Blachowicz gets it done. And Rakic should really be beating a faded Tybura if he’s gonna make any kind of run at Heavyweight. Jury’s out until we see how he looks in there at the higher weight but I think he wins this fight at least. 

[Carbomb]

I hope Rakic does well. There needs to be more potential competition at HW, to hopefully stop that cunt Hokit from being champion.

[Egg Shen]

Barmy one this, 10 first round finishes on the night, how the hell do you dish out bonuses.

[Dai]

Yeah, was a fun show this. Bizarrely I dont have too much to say about it, as it was just a load of fun finishes. Was like a Wrestling Challenge episode of the UFC. Considering there was so many stoppages, I actually think the refs got every one of them right. In this time of most weeks theres comments about an early or late stoppage, from my memory I think every stoppage was spot on.

My only other takeaway was have they ever shown that really cringe music video for Mackenzie Dern before? It had some of the shittest, 1980's, graphics pop up at some point, which I can only assume is the maker of the video just doing the most basic and time efficient AI prompt for it. Hopefully Wand can gif up the shitness. UFC never hype their fighters any more, and the one time they do, it was a really shit music video where she is lip syncing.

[wandshogun09]

Only just getting around to catching up on the last couple of Fight Nights. With the kids being off school I’ve just not been on top of it.

This one was a breeze to skim through this morning. 

On 8/4/2026 at 4:35 PM, Dai said:

Yeah, was a fun show this. Bizarrely I dont have too much to say about it, as it was just a load of fun finishes.

I know exactly what you mean. Fun fights and a shitload of finishes but nothing especially noteworthy because the fights were mostly inconsequential with zero stakes and a fair few new faces that you’re not familiar or invested in yet. As cards like that go though, this was definitely way preferable to a load of mind numbing decisions obviously. Didn’t hurt that the crowd were pretty hot all night.

Uros Medic delivered in a big way in the main event. I love the kick to the body when Rodriguez hits the deck. It’s something I wish fighters would do more, as well as knees to the body on the ground. Ideal result really. The hometown boy with a win via 30 second demolition? Pretty much the perfect ‘send the fans home happy’ result as the first headliner in a new market. Disastrous return for D-Rod this. Seen a bit of talk of possibly doing Medic vs Leon Edwards next. I wouldn’t be surprised if that gets made. Seems like a European/UK card headliner waiting to happen and I think the matchmakers are probably looking at Leon as a spent force at this point so they might fancy him as a stepping stone for Medic.

Navajo Stirling wrecked Jan Blachowicz in the co-main.

Like Medic with the kick to the body, I like the little touch of Stirling shoving Jan after the punch there. He was already off balance, why not help him on his travels? The follow up elbows on the ground were nasty as well, opened Jan right up. Much needed new blood at 205. I’m still not really sure how good Stirling actually is or how much of this was Blachowicz’s age and miles finally properly catching up to him. But it was a strong win for Stirling all the same, especially on short notice. I got this one way wrong. Really thought Jan’s experience and the full camp would make the difference but Stirling smoked him.

Wasn’t keen on Rakic vs Tybura at all myself. Rakic winning was the better result because there’s at least some hope he might do alright at Heavyweight once he settles in, whereas Tybura just looks pretty knackered. Thought Rakic was looking really good in the first round as well, kind of got my hopes up. But then it turned into a bit of a slog. It’d be great if Rakic can build on this and make some waves at HW but my expectations aren’t high.

The rest is all a blur. Gilbert Urbina twatting Vlasto Cepo in a minute pretty much kills any hopes anyone had for Cepo coming in. Urbina’s a bit of a jobber so getting sat down by him in your UFC debut isn’t a good look. Tofiq Musayev stopping Ludovit Klein on the feet wasn’t how I expected that fight to go. I had it in my head that Musayev was more of a grappler. He’s looking a bit of a handful. Michael Oliveira was arguably the standout of the undercard. I definitely thought he was the most impressive of the debuting fighters on this one. Oban Elliott had nothing for him and Oliveira looked powerful as fuck. Looking forward to seeing more from him.

On 8/4/2026 at 4:35 PM, Dai said:

My only other takeaway was have they ever shown that really cringe music video for Mackenzie Dern before? It had some of the shittest, 1980's, graphics pop up at some point, which I can only assume is the maker of the video just doing the most basic and time efficient AI prompt for it. Hopefully Wand can gif up the shitness. UFC never hype their fighters any more, and the one time they do, it was a really shit music video where she is lip syncing.

A gif doesn’t really do it justice but here you go…

Edited August 14 by wandshogun09