Nine Local Fighters, Five UFC Debuts on the Belgrade Card
The card is locked. Aleksandar Rakic moves up to heavyweight for the first time in his career, and three men and two women from the region will have their first UFC fight at Belgrade Arena.
The last three times Aleksandar Rakic walked out of the UFC cage, he walked out beaten. Twice by knockout: Azamat Murzakanov stopped him at 3:11 of round one on October 25, 2025, and Jiri Prochazka got him at 3:17 of round two on April 13, 2024. In between sits a unanimous decision for Magomed Ankalaev on October 26, 2024. Rakic makes that walk a fourth straight time on Saturday, at UFC Belgrade.
He makes it heavier than ever, too. Born in Vienna, 34 years old, 14-6, training out of the American Top Team gym in Zagreb, Rakic fights at heavyweight for the first time in his career. Across from him is ranked Polish veteran Marcin Tybura. What Rakic brings is nine knockout wins, eight first-round finishes and 86 percent takedown defense, which means opponents have put him on the mat in fewer than one attempt in seven.
Five names the UFC audience has not seen yet
Nine fighters from the region are on the Belgrade Arena card. Uros Medic headlines, and Rakic, Dusko Todorovic and Vlasto Cepo fill out the rest of the experienced group. That is four. The other five have not logged a single UFC minute. Three men and two women get their first fight under the contract on Saturday:
- Milos Janicic (29), from Montenegro, lightweight, facing Noah Gugnon of France
- Jovan Leka (24) from Novi Sad, heavyweight, facing Alexander Poppeck
- Nina Nikolija Milosevic (29), women’s bantamweight, facing Hailey Cowan
- Marina Spasic (32) from Belgrade, women’s strawweight, facing Stephanie Luciano
- Borislav Nikolic, bantamweight, facing Mark Vologdin
Two of those five bouts exist only because somebody fell out. Poppeck came in for Max Gimenis, and Nikolic replaced Josias Musasa. The local block on this card was still being filled in late.
Which newcomer arrives on the longest run?
Leka. The Novi Sad heavyweight stands 196 centimeters, fights at the 120 kilogram limit and walks in on six straight wins with a 13-2 record. Eleven of those 13 wins came inside the distance. He got here through the Contender Series, where he took a unanimous decision over Azamat Nuftillaev, then rolled through 2026 with first-round finishes, including one over Danilo Suzart. Poppeck is a newcomer himself, so Belgrade gets two men it has never watched in this promotion.
Milosevic was born in Sweden, competes for Serbia and trains under Renato Subotic. She is 8-1 with five finishes, four of them in the opening round. Hailey Cowan is the first UFC name on her record.
Todorovic is the only one arriving off a win
Todorovic is the only local fighter on the main card who comes in with a victory behind him. The 31-year-old from Kotor is 13-6 and settled his last fight on September 13, 2025, taking Jose Daniel Medina’s back and finishing at 4:21 of round one. Before that he lost a unanimous decision to Zachary Reese on May 31, 2025, and was knocked out by Mansur Abdul-Malik at 2:44 on November 9, 2024.
Over his last seven fights he is 3-4. That is not a record that leaves much room at middleweight, and against Robert Valentin he leans on what carried him this far, eight wins by knockout and four by submission.
Still, Saturday sits heaviest on Rakic. Three straight losses are already a weight, and a fourth would put his roster spot in question no matter the new division and no matter the home crowd. First bouts start on Saturday, August 1, at Belgrade Arena.
