UFC Belgrade: tickets gone in 22 minutes
Dana White was received in Belgrade three days before the first UFC event ever held in Serbia. President Vucic says the Belgrade Arena sold out in 22 minutes, with requests arriving long after.
The belt changed hands first. Dana White held one end, Aleksandar Vucic the other, the photographers got their frame, and then the Serbian president handed back a set of gusle, the traditional Serbian bowed instrument, and a national flag.
The meeting took place on Wednesday, July 29, in the office of the secretary general of the president at Andricev venac 1, three days before the first UFC event ever staged in Serbia. White led the UFC delegation, and the room also held ministers Zoran Gajic and Darko Glisic, plus Luka Nikolic, president of the Serbian MMA Federation.
One hard number came out of the conversation. Vucic said tickets for UFC Fight Night at Belgrade Arena were gone in 22 minutes, and that thousands of requests kept coming in after the box office had emptied.
I had no idea UFC had become this popular in our country, I was genuinely thrilled. We will do our best to be good hosts. I hope we will meet all of your requests
Vucic added that plenty of his own friends had tried to get seats and failed, and that the office received thousands of ticket requests. He also told White the delegation should accept every offer the hosts put in front of them over the coming days.
Where is the crowd coming from?
Not only from Serbia, which is part of why the sale lasted less than half an hour. Vucic said fans are travelling in from North Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Hungary. White answered from the host city’s side of the ledger.
That is good for tourism, for shopping, for the whole city
For Belgrade this is the first time a UFC show fills the Arena. For UFC it is the first date on Serbian soil after years in which Serbian fighters had to build their records in other people’s buildings.
Who fights on Saturday
The main event puts welterweights Uros Medic, ranked 14th in the division, against Daniel Rodriguez, ranked 15th. Under them sit light heavyweights Jan Blachowicz against Navajo Stirling, and a heavyweight bout between Aleksandar Rakic and Marcin Tybura.
Nine Serbian fighters are booked for the night:
- Uros Medic, welterweight, main event
- Aleksandar Rakic, heavyweight
- Dusko Todorovic, middleweight
- Vlasto Cepo, middleweight
- Milos Janicic, lightweight
- Jovan Leka, heavyweight
- Borislav Nikolic, bantamweight
- Nikolija Nina Milosevic, women’s bantamweight
- Marina Spasic, women’s strawweight
UFC has the prelims starting at 10 a.m. Eastern time and the main card at 1 p.m. Eastern, which is 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. in Belgrade. The whole card streams on UFC Fight Pass.
Nothing is left to buy for that night, since UFC Fight Night has been pulled from the tickets.rs listings. What remains on sale shows the Arena turning into a combat sports address this year: Power Slap 22 on Friday, the eve of the UFC card, from 1,500 dinars, and BKFC Serbia on October 17, from 2,590 dinars. Friday is the warm-up. The real work starts Saturday, August 1, at 7 p.m. local time.
