The UFC went to Serbia for the first time on August 1st, 2026, and Belgrade Arena turned into the most violent building in the sport. Fourteen fights. Twelve finishes. Ten of them in the first round. Only two fights reached the judges, and the total fight time for the entire card — all fourteen bouts, prelims through main event — was one hour, fourteen minutes, and thirty-five seconds. Both the 12 finishes and the 10 first-round finishes are modern-era UFC single-event records, and no card in the promotion's history had ever produced double-digit first-round stoppages before this one. Tickets sold out in twenty minutes. 18,623 people packed the arena for a $2.49 million gate. Dana White said afterward it was the first time he'd ever seen flares lit at a UFC event.
Prelims
Fight 1: Stephanie Luciano def. Marina Spasic — Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Round 1 (3:20)
The card opened with a Serbian fighter in the cage and the building at full volume, and then Stephanie Luciano quieted it in three and a half minutes.
Marina Spasic was winning this fight. She marched forward from the opening bell, and her jab was the best weapon in the cage — clean, fast, and finding Luciano's face repeatedly in the first forty-five seconds. She outlanded Luciano 25-20 overall and 18-14 to the head. If this fight goes ten more minutes, I think Spasic wins a decision.
But it didn't go ten more minutes. Luciano waited, let Spasic get comfortable throwing, and shot on her mid-combination. The takedown landed, she climbed to the back immediately, and the rear naked choke was locked before Spasic could process what happened. Twenty-six seconds of control time from takedown to tap. That's the whole grappling sequence.
Beautiful patience on that shot. Luciano now has back-to-back rear naked choke finishes and sits at 8-2-1. Spasic suffered the first stoppage loss of her career and never saw it coming, because for three minutes she was the better fighter.
Fight 2: Jovan Leka def. Alexander Poppeck — KO, Round 1 (2:22)
Two Contender Series alums, both making their actual UFC debuts, and a 47-pound weight difference — Jovan Leka at 262, Alexander Poppeck at 215.
Poppeck started better. He was landing calf kicks early and often, going 5 of 5 on leg strikes, and Leka did nothing for the first ninety seconds but apply pressure without throwing. Slow, quiet start.
BANG! Leka threw one body kick and it sounded like a gunshot. Right to the liver. Poppeck dropped, Leka hunted him down with strikes to the face, and the referee waved it off at 2:22. Here's the stat that tells the whole story: Leka went 1 of 1 to the body for the entire fight. He threw one body strike all night and it ended the fight.
One of the nastiest, loudest body kicks you'll ever hear. Leka becomes the first Serbian to win on Serbian soil, and the building erupted.
Fight 3: Nina Milosevic def. Hailey Cowan — TKO, Round 1 (3:41)
Serbia went 2-for-2 with a body shot of its own.
Nina Milosevic came in on an eight-fight win streak and fought like someone who belonged immediately. Her body kicks were landing from the start, and she was picking Hailey Cowan apart at range. Cowan's offense was slow and telegraphed all night — she'd load up her shots and Milosevic would already be gone. The numbers are brutal: Cowan went 13 of 48, twenty-seven percent accuracy, and 0 for 2 on takedowns.
The finish was a straight right to the middle of the body. Cowan's hands dropped and the wind went out of her. She tried to recover, and Milosevic put a second shot in exactly the same spot. That was it. Milosevic finished 21 of 39 at fifty-three percent with 7 of 10 to the body and took home a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus.
She said she wants to fight again as soon as possible. Give it to her. As for Cowan, she's 0-4 in the UFC now and on a four-fight losing skid — I don't want to see her on a UFC card again.
Fight 4: Mateusz Rebecki def. Kyle Prepolec — TKO, Round 1 (4:41)
This was a beating.
Both men traded for the first thirty seconds, then Mateusz Rebecki shot, got the takedown, and the fight was effectively over. He landed 75 significant strikes and 132 total strikes in a single round — 132 — at seventy-six percent accuracy, with 68 of those coming on the ground. He controlled 4:04 of a 4:41 round. Eighty-seven percent of the fight was Rebecki on top of Kyle Prepolec hitting him.
Prepolec landed two strikes. Two. By the end he was on all fours with his hands over his face, and Rebecki dropped twenty consecutive shots on him before the referee finally stepped in. There was almost no effort to escape, no attempt to improve position, nothing.
Rebecki snapped a three-fight losing skid here for his first win since October 2024, and he's now landed at least one takedown against all nine of his UFC opponents. Prepolec falls to 0-5 in the UFC and 0-3 since returning in May of last year.
Fight 5: Bogdan Grad def. Dennis Buzukja — Submission (Arm Triangle), Round 2 (4:33)
The first fight of the night to escape round one, and the most controversial result on the card.
Bogdan Grad won the first round on volume and control. He was 27 of 40 at sixty-seven percent, hit 3 of 6 takedowns, controlled 2:44, and closed the round with an absolute unloading on Dennis Buzukja against the fence — all 14 of his ground strikes came in that final sequence. Buzukja was in serious trouble at the horn.
Round two flipped. Grad's gas tank emptied and you could see it: his accuracy dropped to fifty percent, his control time fell to 1:40, his shots got slower and more predictable, and he landed zero ground strikes. Buzukja outlanded him 24-17 in the round and started finding his rhythm with left hooks and uppercuts. He was coming back.
Then Grad caught a sloppy exchange, took top position, and locked the arm triangle from half guard. Referee Jason Herzog waved it off at 4:33 — and Buzukja shot straight up in protest, insisting he never tapped. The replay didn't clearly show one. The argument since has been whether he tapped or was pushing on Grad's leg to create space.
For what it's worth, I think Buzukja was going to lose that position regardless. But Grad was fading badly and Buzukja was the fresher man. Would have been fun to watch that one go to a decision.
Fight 6: Borislav Nikolic def. Mark Vologdin — Unanimous Decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)
The judges finally got involved, and it took six fights.
Borislav Nikolic is a former BRAVE CF bantamweight champion who took this fight on eight days' notice, and he came out reckless. Ten seconds in, Mark Vologdin cracked him with a left hook that put him on his knees, then locked up a front headlock and started driving knees into his head. Rough opening minute for a guy in his home country making his debut.
Nikolic survived and slowly figured it out, but "slowly" is doing work in that sentence. He threw 147 significant strikes and landed 57. Thirty-eight percent. Ninety misses. Vologdin — who is 5-foot-3 and giving up six inches of height — kept making him whiff and kept countering on the way in. Vologdin actually outlanded him 22-18 in round two.
Round three is where Nikolic earned the scorecards. He battered Vologdin for the full five minutes: 28 of 50 to Vologdin's 6 of 15, 51-6 on total strikes, 2:56 of control, 12 of 14 ground strikes. That's a 10-8 round on all three cards, which is the only way you get to 29-27 across the board.
Credit to Vologdin. He ate a full round of back-mount ground-and-pound and never stopped fighting. But Nikolic wasn't impressive here given the hype around a 94 percent career finish rate, and I'd want to see him with a full camp before drawing conclusions.
Fight 7: Michael Oliveira def. Oban Elliott — KO, Round 1 (1:49)
Nine years in the Brazilian army as a paratrooper, undefeated, and now 10-0 with a UFC debut knockout.
Michael Oliveira was patient for the first minute while Oban Elliott came forward. Then he landed a jab that stumbled Elliott badly, and from there it was quick. Elliott shot, Oliveira defended it cleanly, and when they reset Oliveira landed a 1-2 with a big right hand that dropped Elliott to his knees. Ten of Oliveira's 14 significant strikes came on the ground, and the referee stopped it at 1:49.
Two knockdowns in 109 seconds. Oliveira has finished nine of his ten career wins, all by knockout. He said afterward he wanted to show Dana he belonged — mission accomplished. This is a guy worth watching closely at 170.
Elliott drops to three straight losses, the longest skid of his career.
Fight 8: Tofiq Musayev def. Ludovit Klein — TKO, Round 2 (4:07)
The best technical fight on the prelims, and the numbers say it was dead even until it wasn't.
Tofiq Musayev and Ludovit Klein each landed exactly 46 significant strikes. Klein was the more accurate man all night at fifty-two percent to Musayev's forty-one. But Musayev built round one entirely on the lead leg — he went 8 of 9 on leg strikes and landed only 6 of 29 to the head. Nearly half his output for the round was inside calf kicks, and one of them buckled Klein and had him backing up.
What made this fight interesting was the adjustment. Musayev abandoned the leg kicks in round two — 2 of 3 attempts — and went upstairs instead, landing 20 of 54 to the head. Klein got more comfortable, found his own rhythm, went a perfect 9 of 9 to the body. Both men were landing heavy.
Then Musayev put together a 1-2 to the body followed by right hook, left, right hook, and dropped Klein cold. He jumped on top, Klein covered up, and the referee stepped in at 4:07. Beautiful three-piece combination.
Musayev has now finished 21 of his 24 career wins and wants a top-15 opponent. After the war he had with Ignacio Bahamondes in March and this performance, he's earned the conversation.
Main Card
Fight 9: Noah Gugnon def. Milos Janicic — Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Round 1 (1:21)
Both men making their UFC debuts, both with 100 percent finish rates, and it lasted eighty-one seconds.
Something happened to Milos Janicic's left leg in the opening ten seconds and he was never able to stand again. He threw a kick that landed on Noah Gugnon's elbow, and Gugnon kicked his calf shortly after — I can't tell you which one did it, and neither could the broadcast. What I can tell you is that Gugnon went 4 of 4 on leg strikes out of only five landed total, and that he recorded zero takedowns. The fight went to the mat because Janicic's leg gave out, not because anybody put him there.
From there Gugnon took full mount, took the back, and got the tap at 1:21. Janicic actually outlanded him 6-5, which tells you how little fight there was.
Hard to scout either man off this. Gugnon has finished all ten of his career wins and looked composed, but the injury wrote this one. Janicic suffered the first submission loss of his career.
Fight 10: Gilbert Urbina def. Vlasto Cepo — TKO, Round 1 (1:01)
The biggest upset on the card. Gilbert Urbina was a plus-270 underdog and needed sixty-one seconds.
Vlasto Cepo came out swinging haymakers and had Urbina backed up for the first thirty seconds. Big overhand rights, heavy pressure, all of it. Then Urbina landed one clean counter left that sat Cepo flat on his back, and it was finished — Urbina took top position and unloaded 22 of 26 ground strikes with elbows until the referee stopped it.
Cepo went 7 of 24 for twenty-nine percent and never mounted any defense once he was down. All that early pressure produced almost nothing.
Urbina landed 30 significant strikes in 61 seconds at sixty-two percent accuracy in his middleweight debut and took home $100,000 for Performance of the Night. That's how you answer a promotional cut conversation.
Fight 11: Robert Valentin def. Dusko Todorovic — Submission (Guillotine), Round 1 (4:14)
Almost no striking, constant scrambling, and a submission that came from a place you don't expect.
This was four minutes of grappling chess. Robert Valentin opened with a front kick up the middle that dropped Dusko Todorovic for a beat, then spent the round hunting the neck. Position reversed maybe five times — Todorovic worked to top, Valentin flipped it, Todorovic scrambled back, on and on. Todorovic went 2 of 3 on takedowns.
The finish is the detail worth getting right. Todorovic reversed into what looked like top position, and Valentin caught the guillotine from bottom guard on the way through. Todorovic tapped almost immediately at 4:14.
Two significant strikes landed in the entire fight — one each. That's it. Valentin has now finished 11 of his 12 career wins and both of his UFC victories by submission. Todorovic suffered the first submission loss of his career and has gone 3-7 in his last ten after starting 11-0.
Fight 12: Aleksandar Rakic def. #13 Marcin Tybura — Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Aleksandar Rakic moved up to heavyweight for the first time and won his first fight in over five years.
That's the story here, and it's bigger than the fight itself was. Rakic came in having lost four straight, without a win since March 2021, and he beat a top-15 heavyweight in front of his home crowd.
The weapon was the calf kick. Rakic went 11 of 11 on leg strikes in round one — perfect — and 16 of 18 for the night. He also did more damage to the body than most people noticed: 27 of 34, seventy-nine percent. Marcin Tybura had no answer for any of it and had to lean and lunge for everything he threw.
Round one wasn't close: Rakic 36 of 60 at sixty percent, Tybura 10 of 56 at seventeen. Tybura threw 56 significant strikes and landed ten. Final numbers were 71 of 136 for Rakic against 33 of 129 for Tybura, with 3:11 of control for Rakic and zero for Tybura, who also went 0 for 2 on takedown attempts.
The third round was ugly — a lot of fence clinching, both men slowing down, not much happening. But the result was never in doubt. Tybura went twenty-five percent, recorded no control time, completed no takedowns, and didn't seem particularly interested in changing any of that. I don't really care to watch him fight if that's how it's going to go.
Fight 13: #15 Navajo Stirling def. #4 Jan Blachowicz — TKO, Round 1 (2:56)
Five months ago on the Adesanya vs. Pyfer card, I wrote that Navajo Stirling doesn't panic — that he builds, breaks you, and then finishes. He just did it to a former light heavyweight champion on less than two weeks' notice.
Stirling stepped in for Bogdan Guskov, who got pulled to face Magomed Ankalaev at UFC Abu Dhabi after Khalil Rountree withdrew injured. One domino, three fights rearranged, and the biggest opportunity of Stirling's career landed in his lap six weeks after his last fight.
He built this round exactly the way he built the Bruno Lopes fight. Inside leg kicks, over and over — he finished 10 of 11 on leg strikes. Jan Blachowicz had a good early moment with a head kick that tripped Stirling up, and he bloodied Stirling's nose. Then Stirling pushed Blachowicz's left hand out of the way and landed a right that sent the former champion across the cage and onto his back. Stirling chased it down, postured up, and put his weight behind elbows and punches until it was over at 2:56.
The final numbers are absurd for a former champion: Blachowicz landed 3 significant strikes. Three, on seven attempts, with 1 of 5 to the head. Stirling went 35 of 46 at seventy-six percent with 20 of 24 on the ground and 1:04 of control to Blachowicz's four seconds.
Stirling is 11-0 and his six-fight UFC light heavyweight win streak is second-longest active in the division behind Carlos Ulberg's ten — the same Ulberg who won the title in April. He called out Rountree and Paulo Costa afterward. He's going to be in the top ten by Monday, and he's a future title challenger in my eyes.
For Blachowicz, this is a five-fight winless run, the longest of his career, and he hasn't won since May 2022. Seven of his nine UFC losses have come by decision, so getting stopped like this is new territory at 43.
Fight 14: #14 Uros Medic def. #15 Daniel Rodriguez — TKO, Round 1 (0:30)
A five-round main event that lasted thirty seconds.
Daniel Rodriguez actually started it — a hard low kick that swept Uros Medic to a knee. That kick was the only significant strike Rodriguez landed all night. One of one, and that was his entire offensive output.
Medic got up, got loose with his hands, and found the jaw with a straight left. Rodriguez dropped, covered up, and Medic landed left, right, left and a knee before swarming on the ground. The referee waved it off five seconds later. Eleven significant strikes at seventy-eight percent accuracy to win a main event in his home country.
The crowd lost its mind. Standing ovation, flares, the whole building screaming for a guy who left Serbia at 22 with nothing and came back as the main event of the country's first UFC card. "I just want to cry," he said. "I missed home so much. Nine years, it's a long time. I left when I was a student. I was 22 years old with a dream, and look where it got me." Then: "We are going to bring this belt back to Serbia."
The résumé is now genuinely frightening. All fourteen of Medic's career wins have come by stoppage — he has never seen a judge's scorecard as a professional. All eight of his UFC wins are knockouts. His five first-round knockouts in UFC welterweight competition tie Anthony Johnson for most in divisional history. His four-fight UFC knockout streak is tied with Manel Kape for the longest among active fighters, and his four-fight first-round knockout streak is tied for third-longest in company history behind Sergei Pavlovich's six and Don Frye's five.
Mean, ruthless, and completely likeable. He named Carlos Prates as the fight he wants. Give it to him.
Night in Review
Fourteen fights in seventy-four minutes. Twelve finishes, ten in the first round, both modern-era UFC records, and the first card ever to hit double digits in first-round stoppages. Serbia's debut couldn't have gone better if it had been scripted.
Four fighters walked away with $100,000 Performance of the Night bonuses — Medic, Stirling, Urbina, and Milosevic — and eight more collected $25,000 finish bonuses. There was no Fight of the Night, because almost nothing lasted long enough to qualify. Debuting fighters went 5-4 on the night, and betting favorites went 12-2.
Biggest Risers:
- Uros Medic — record-tying finisher, national hero, legitimate contender
- Navajo Stirling — stopped a former champion on two weeks' notice, top ten incoming
- Michael Oliveira — 10-0 with a debut knockout and real power
- Nina Milosevic — bonus-winning debut, nine straight wins
- Aleksandar Rakic — first win in five years, new division, new life
- Gilbert Urbina — plus-270 underdog, 61 seconds, $100,000
Biggest Questions:
- Does Jan Blachowicz keep fighting after five without a win?
- How high does Medic climb before he gets a top-five opponent?
- What is Marcin Tybura still doing here after a performance like that?
- How soon does the UFC go back to Belgrade?
Overall Card Score: 8.9
Not the deepest card of the year in terms of talent, and a few of these were squashes rather than fights. But you don't get nights like this. Every prelim except one ended early, the main card gave you five finishes in six fights, and the hometown headliner closed it in half a minute in front of a building that never sat down. The record book says this was the most violent card the modern UFC has ever produced, and it earned it.
All fighter stats and comparison data available at FightingData.com. Follow @fightingdata on X for fight-by-fight breakdowns.