The UFC lands in Serbia for the first time on Saturday, August 1, and Belgrade Arena is going to be loud. Uroš Medić headlines on home soil, Jan Błachowicz is fighting for whatever career time he has left against an undefeated prospect out of City Kickboxing, Aleksandar Rakić makes a desperate jump to heavyweight after going winless for five years, and a raft of local Serbian fighters are scattered across the card in what amounts to the promotion’s full-scale introduction to a country that has quietly been producing serious combat sports talent for years. It is a genuine card top to bottom. Not everything will deliver, but the main event, co-main, and the heavyweight experiment with Rakić give this card three distinct storylines worth caring about before the first bell.
Main Card
Uroš Medić vs. Daniel Rodriguez — Welterweight — Main Event
Medić is 13-3 and has built his reputation almost entirely on one attribute: he puts people away fast and he does it often. Eleven of his thirteen wins come by KO or TKO. Ten of those stoppages happened in the first round. In February 2026 he needed 1:19 to finish Geoff Neal, a durable veteran with a chin that has been tested by some of the better strikers in the welterweight division. The Serbian kickboxer ranked 14th at 170 pounds carries a 60 percent striking accuracy rate and the kind of first-round finishing instinct that makes him dangerous against anyone he touches. Fighting in front of a sold-out Belgrade Arena on a Saturday night is as close to a home playoff game as MMA gets, and Medić has been pointing toward this moment since he relocated to the United States to pursue fighting full time after a kickboxing career in Serbia that included multiple national titles.
Daniel Rodriguez is 20-5 and has been a professional since 2015, meaning he has seen roughly every variation of MMA opponent the sport can produce. The 39-year-old Los Angeles native trains at 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu under Eddie Bravo, holds a purple belt in no-gi submission grappling, and averaged over seven significant strikes per minute in 2025 when he beat Kevin Holland by unanimous decision at UFC 318 in July. Rodriguez does not look flashy. He is a high-volume grinder who can absorb punishment, maintain pace, and make fights ugly when he needs to. His submission rate is real — four wins by submission — which gives him a path to victory even if Medić’s striking is difficult to deal with on the feet.
The market has Medić installed as a significant favorite. His finishing power in the first round is the obvious reason, and the crowd factor in Belgrade is real — fighters performing at home in front of their own country tend to carry more urgency in those early minutes. The interesting question is whether Rodriguez can survive the storm, drag the fight deep enough to impose his pace, and start using the grappling he has been building for a decade. Medić has the look of a guy who can either finish this quickly or get ground down. Somewhere in that variance is the whole fight.
Jan Błachowicz vs. Navajo Stirling — Light Heavyweight
Błachowicz is 43 years old, 29-11-2 professionally, and has not won a fight since 2022. His most recent appearance was a majority draw against Bogdan Guskov in December 2025 — Guskov was then pulled from this card and rerouted to fight Magomed Ankalaev in Abu Dhabi last weekend, where Ankalaev stopped him in the fifth round. That left Błachowicz without an opponent until Navajo Stirling stepped in, giving the former UFC light heavyweight champion a different problem entirely: a 10-0 undefeated New Zealander who is four years into professional MMA and still hasn’t hit a setback. Stirling’s most recent fight was a second-round TKO over Ion Cuțelaba in June 2026. Before that he beat Rodolfo Bellato and Bruno Lopes. He has finished three of his last four and looks like a fighter who is steadily figuring out how to convert his physical advantages and striking background into reliable UFC results.
The market reflects the reality: Stirling is favored. A former champion getting outpriced against a man with ten fights is the clearest possible statement about where Błachowicz stands right now. None of that erases what he accomplished — he beat Israel Adesanya to defend the title, he was a champion during a period when that division had real depth — but this is the part of a fighter’s career that tends to look ugly in hindsight. The question is whether the crowd at Belgrade Arena, which will presumably cheer for the Polish former champion out of European solidarity, gives him anything to draw from. And whether Stirling, in his first fight against a former champion, handles the moment or lets the stage get to him.
Aleksandar Rakić vs. Marcin Tybura — Heavyweight
Rakić is Serbian and was once considered a serious threat at light heavyweight. He is 34 years old, 14-6, and has lost four straight, including defeats against Magomed Ankalaev, Jan Błachowicz, and Jiří Procházka. He has not recorded a victory in over five years. The move to heavyweight for his Belgrade homecoming is either a calculated reset or an act of desperation, depending on your point of view. The physical tools have always been there — Rakić has the length, the striking mechanics, and the footwork — but the 205-pound version of him kept losing to the best available light heavyweights when it mattered. Whether those tools translate at 265 pounds against a veteran heavyweight remains to be seen on Saturday.
Tybura is 27-11, 40 years old, and has been a UFC heavyweight for nearly a decade at this point. He has won and lost against consistent heavyweight-level competition — split his last four appearances, beat Mick Parkin and Jhonata Diniz, then lost to Ante Delija and Tyrell Fortune. He is not a knockout artist or a submission specialist who creates existential problems for a naturally sized light heavyweight moving up. The market installs Rakić as a substantial favorite (-300), which says more about Tybura’s ceiling than it does about confidence in Rakić’s new weight class. This is a winnable fight for the Serbian on home soil, and Rakić presumably knows it.
Duško Todorović vs. Robert Valentin — Middleweight
Both fighters showed up here after extended rough patches. Todorović is the Belgrade native — 13-6 overall, 4-6 in the UFC since getting a contract through Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019 — who recently ended a three-fight losing streak by submitting José Medina with a rear-naked choke inside one round. Getting the finish matters. He trains at home, fights at home Saturday, and needs a performance with some weight to it after years of treading water in the promotion. Valentin is 11-6, also snapped a three-fight losing streak with a submission win of his own at UFC Winnipeg. Two fighters bouncing off the bottom of their career trajectories, looking for something to build on. Todorović at +128 against the -148 Valentin is close enough to call this even on paper, which tracks for a fight between two guys who have beaten similar-level opposition and neither has beaten anyone who would change the conversation at middleweight.
Vlasto Cepo vs. Gilbert Urbina — Middleweight
Cepo is making his UFC debut in front of the home crowd, which is exactly the kind of story the promotion wanted when they brought this event to Serbia. He carries a 14-3 professional record into the Octagon and is installed as a steep favorite at -340. Urbina has gone 1-3 in the UFC and enters as the substantial underdog at +280. This is a spot where the UFC is giving a local prospect a manageable first fight on a stage that should feel electric. Whether Cepo can handle the noise and the moment will tell us something about what he actually is. The record says he can finish people. Saturday will tell us if he can do it when the stakes are real.
Prelims
Ludovit Klein vs. Tofiq Musayev — Lightweight
Klein is 24-5-1 overall and has been one of the more underrated consistent fighters in the UFC lightweight division over the past four years. His only loss in the UFC during a recent stretch came against Mateusz Gamrot, a legitimate top-five contender. He has beaten Ignacio Bahamondes twice, Thiago Moises, and Mason Jones — all fighters with legitimate rankings at some point. Musayev arrives from Rizin and Bellator with considerable pedigree as a former tournament champion and rebounded from a rough UFC debut (at a 165-pound catchweight, no less) to beat Bahamondes in his second UFC appearance. The odds sit at Klein -193, Musayev +168, which makes this close enough to be a real fight. Two underrated lightweights trying to crack the rankings. These are often the best prelim fights on any card.
Michael Oliveira vs. Oban Elliott — Welterweight
Oliveira is a steep -450 favorite over Elliott at +350, which signals how the market views the competitive gap here. Oliveira is making his UFC debut with serious credibility from outside the promotion, and the odds suggest the books see this as a showcase fight. Elliott has gone 3-2 in the UFC but has faced a difficult run of opponents. This is a fight to monitor for early results rather than a matchup worth breaking down in detail ahead of time.
Mark Vologdin vs. Borislav Nikolic — Bantamweight
Nikolic stepped in on one week’s notice to take this fight after Josias Musasa was pulled from the card. The replacement is an interesting one — Nikolic is 16-2, the reigning Brave CF bantamweight champion based in Belgrade, currently riding a six-fight winning streak, and making his UFC debut in his home country on one week of notice. That last detail is the most important one. Short-notice replacements either come in with nothing to lose and tear the house down or they crater under the pressure of a condensed preparation window. Nikolic clearly accepted knowing the crowd would be there. His odds sit close enough to even against Vologdin that neither fighter enters as a significant outlier. This is the kind of prelim fight that goes quietly in the background and then catches people off guard with an entertaining finish.
Bogdan Grad vs. Dennis Buzukja — Featherweight
Grad enters as the -220 favorite over Buzukja at +185. Grad is 1-2 in the UFC and looking for consistent traction at featherweight. Buzukja has struggled to find results in the promotion. This one plays as a developmental fight for both men, with the market slightly preferring Grad to get back on track.
Mateusz Rębecki vs. Kyle Prepolec — Lightweight
Rębecki is a -335 favorite and enters as one of the more lopsided fights on the card outside the main event. He has legitimate finishing ability and the market treats this as close to a must-win situation by virtue of how steep the line sits. Prepolec at +275 will need something specific to go right if he wants to walk out of Belgrade with a win.
Nina Milosevic vs. Hailey Cowan — Women’s Bantamweight
Milosevic is the Serbian local making her UFC debut at home, and the -400 line reflects the bookmakers’ confidence in her regional pedigree translating to UFC results. Cowan at +300 has had limited success in the promotion. This follows the same pattern as Cepo vs. Urbina on the main card — local fighter, home debut, and a crowd that will be vocal about it from the opening bell.
Early Prelims
Miloš Janičić vs. Noah Gugnon — Lightweight
Both fighters are making their UFC debuts, and both arrive with limited professional records at this level. Janičić is the Serbian entry, giving the card yet another local angle in the early prelims. These debut fights against fellow newcomers can occasionally produce something worth watching when neither man has the UFC jitters fully figured out yet, but preview depth is limited with fighters at this stage.
Marina Spasic vs. Stephanie Luciano — Women’s Strawweight
Spasic is the Serbian debut fighter here, matching the theme of the card’s early preliminary section being built heavily around local prospects getting their first promotional appearances. Luciano brings a 2-1 record and a slight experience advantage. Beyond that, limited public information is available on either fighter going in.
Betting Odds & Event Context
The headliner has Medić at roughly -315 with Rodriguez at +265, making the Serbian a significant home favorite despite the fight being a ranked-vs-ranked welterweight matchup. The line moved from opening where some shops had Medić closer to -500, which suggests money has come in on Rodriguez — not enough to flip the direction, but enough to tighten the number. The co-main sits at Stirling -265, Blachowicz +225, and that spread tells you everything about how the betting market values a former champion who has gone winless for nearly four years against a rising 10-0 prospect with finishing ability and a full training camp at City Kickboxing. Rakić at -300 over Tybura at +250 in the heavyweight debut is a number built on Tybura’s recent struggles more than any strong endorsement of how Rakić will look at 265 pounds.
Further down the card, Oliveira at -450 over Elliott is the steepest line of the night and signals a near-certain outcome by market standards. Klein at -193 over Musayev at +168 is the most interesting odds pairing on the prelims — close enough that either result would be reasonable. Rebecki at -335 over Prepolec is another steep one. For the women’s fights, Milosevic at -400 and Cepo at -340 round out the heavy favorites on the card, both of them local Serbian debuts getting favorable matchmaking for their home introductions. For our full card selections, check BetMMA.tips/DelinquentMMA.
The broader market picture on this card: four Serbian fighters are heavily favored across different sections of the card (Medić, Rakić, Cepo, Milosevic), and three of them are making either UFC debuts or weight-class/division debuts on home soil. That kind of lineup is not an accident — the UFC is building the Serbia market by giving local fighters favorable positioning on the first card in the country. Whether that reflects the legitimate quality of Serbian MMA talent or promotional decision-making is worth keeping in mind when looking at the numbers.
All odds are for informational context only. Bet responsibly and check your local laws and regulations before placing any wagers.
Fighter Spotlight: Navajo Stirling
The name Navajo came from his father’s obsession with Western films. His brother was named Shaquille after the basketball player. Rongotehengia Navajo Hunter Stirling grew up in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, played rugby at Upper Hutt College, and found his way to karate after deciding team sports put too much of his success in other people’s hands. His inspiration to fight professionally was watching Conor McGregor. In 2020, he visited his brother in Auckland, walked into City Kickboxing, and never left the sport. He has said publicly that the visit made him realize he should have been there years earlier.
Before MMA, Stirling was winning kickboxing tournaments at a level that put him in rare company. He became the third fighter in history to hold King in the Ring titles at two different weight classes, joining Israel Adesanya and Carlos Ulberg — two fighters who came out of the same Auckland gym system that shaped him. The kickboxing résumé is legitimate, not just padding. By the time he made his professional MMA debut in September 2022, he was already a complete enough striker that regional opponents did not represent a fair test. He went 5-0 outside the UFC, then won his Contender Series contract with a knockout in September 2024. Since entering the UFC, he has gone 5-0 in the promotion, picking up his first UFC finish with a second-round TKO of Bruno Lopes in March 2026 before following it with another second-round TKO over Ion Cuțelaba in June.
What makes him interesting to watch beyond the record is the specific quality of how he wins. Stirling is 6’4″ at light heavyweight with legitimate striking mechanics built over years of kickboxing competition, and he has been patient about layering in the grappling and jiu-jitsu work that makes him dangerous across multiple dimensions. He has been open about overcoming alcohol issues in his teenage years and credits martial arts with giving him something to commit to. He bleaches his hair blonde by design — he has said word of mouth is easier when people can describe him as “the big blonde guy.” Every piece of the Stirling story connects to a fighter who has thought carefully about what he wants and how to get there. Now he is 10-0 and facing a former UFC champion for the first time. How he handles Jan Błachowicz in Belgrade will tell us a great deal about the ceiling on what he can become at 205 pounds.
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