Buzukja hits the limit, then flashes the double eagle
The American of Albanian descent stepped on the scale at exactly 146 pounds, with nothing to spare, and made the double eagle sign the moment the towel screen dropped.
Two men hold a black screen stretched out on the hotel ballroom stage, and all you hear behind it is the rustle of a towel. Denis Buzukja strips down, steps on the scale and waits. The official reads the number out loud: 146 pounds, about 66.2 kilograms. Dead on the limit. Then the screen drops, Buzukja crosses his wrists in front of his chest and spreads his fingers into the double eagle.
The moment came at the official weigh-in for UFC Belgrade, held on Friday, July 31, 2026, at a hotel in the city centre. The American of Albanian descent posted the clip on his own Instagram profile, and it was doing the rounds on Serbian social media before the two-hour morning window had even closed.
Not half a pound to spare
The featherweight ceiling for a non-title bout is 146 pounds. Buzukja landed exactly on it, which is why he went fully naked behind the screen. That is standard practice when a fighter aims at the number itself rather than somewhere safely under it.
His opponent Bogdan Grad had an easier morning: 145.5 pounds, roughly 66 kilograms, half a pound inside the limit. On paper that gap is nothing. In camp it is the difference between sleeping and sweating, because a fighter who misses weight usually forfeits a slice of his purse to the opponent, and the bout is either rescheduled at a catchweight or scrapped.
Both men will rehydrate through the day and walk into the cage on Saturday considerably heavier than the numbers read on stage. Hitting the limit is the whole job. Going far below it is wasted work.
Why does the double eagle draw a reaction here?
The gesture is made by crossing the hands and fanning out the fingers to suggest the eagle on the Albanian flag. It picked up its political charge in 2018, when Swiss internationals Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri, both of Albanian descent, used it to celebrate goals against Serbia at the World Cup in Russia. FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings and both were fined, without a suspension.
Combat sports carry no equivalent sanction. Weigh-ins are broadcast live, the stage has long been a place where fighters speak to the crowd, and Buzukja sent his message a day before he walks out in front of a Belgrade arena.
The local fighters all made weight
Nobody on the Serbian side of the card ran into trouble. Uros Medic came in at 171 pounds for the main event against Daniel Rodriguez, who hit the same number. That fight is booked for five rounds.
The rest of the scale readings:
- Jan Blachowicz and Navajo Stirling, both 205 pounds, in the co-main event
- Aleksandar Rakic at 237.5 pounds, against Marcin Tybura at 254
- Dusko Todorovic at 185, against Robert Valentin at 185.5
- Vlasto Cepo at 186, against Gilbert Urbina at 185.5
- Milos Janicic at 156, against Noah Gugnon at 155
Marina Spasic and Nikolija Milosevic also made their weights without difficulty.
What Saturday holds
Buzukja and Grad meet on the preliminary card at Belgrade Arena on Saturday, August 1, 2026. The stakes are higher for the American than his slot suggests. He has one win in five UFC appearances and a professional record of 12-6. Grad arrives from Austria at 15-4.
Buzukja had two ways to make Belgrade remember him. He picked the one that does not require winning, and he picked it on a morning when he was a single pound away from a problem of his own. The rest gets settled on Saturday night, and the scale is no help there.
