Uros Medic, UFC 291 ceremonial weigh-in Credit: Eddie Law/Cageside Press
UFC’s first ever trip to Belgrade, Serbia was a memorable one. The card set the promotion’s record for most finishes and most first-round finishes. In the main event, Serbia’s own Uros Medic made short work of Daniel Rodriguez. The card also saw Navajo Stirling making a splash at light heavyweight by knocking out former champion Jan Blachowicz and Aleksandar Rakic earning his first win in over five years. With UFC Belgrade behind us, let’s look at what’s next for the winners.
Uros Medic
On Saturday, Uros Medic graduated from fun action fighter to legitimate welterweight contender. After proving to the promotion that he’s a sure bet for entertainment, he earned himself a homecoming main event spot and made the most of that opportunity. The logical next step here is either another main event, or a spot on the main card of a numbered event. In either case, a matchup with Leon Edwards works.
Medic’s next fight: Leon Edwards
Navajo Stirling
One week after Magomed Ankalaev and Bogdan Guskov failed to change the status quo at light-heavyweight by lulling us to sleep, 28-year-old Navajo Stirling became the first to KO Jan Blachowicz since Thiago Santos in 2019. This division was in bad need of new blood and Stirling delivered it. Considering Blachowicz hasn’t gotten his hand raised since 2022, it seems unlikely that this result will grant Stirling a title shot, no matter how impressive the victory. For that reason, I think a fight with Jiri Prochazka could be next for the Kiwi.
Stirling’s next fight: Jiri Prochazka
Aleksandar Rakic
Last time Aleksandar Rakic won a fist fight, Alex Pereira still hadn’t been signed by the UFC. It had been a while since the Serbian tasted victory, but five years and a long overdue weight class change later, here we are. While no one would describe this fight as exciting, we can perhaps excuse Rakic’s shy fighting approach considering getting the win was his utmost priority. With that monkey now off his back, we can set the bar higher for his next outing. I think Ante Delija has a fight style that could tell us a lot about where Rakic’s confidence is after Saturday.
Rakic’s next fight: Ante Delija
Robert Valentin
After failing to win his season of The Ultimate Fighter, Robert Valentin now finds himself on a win streak, while Ryan Loder, who defeated him that TUF Finale, is still winless inside the promotion. Funny how those things work out sometimes. However, before we start taking the Swiss seriously at middleweight, he would first need to at least defeat someone with a bit of legitimacy to his name. Because he’s been on a slide, someone like Marvin Vettori might fake for an interesting pairing.
Valentin’s next fight: Marvin Vettori
Gilbert Urbina
Coming in as a near three-to-one betting underdog and off consecutive first-round KO losses, it was no wonder this looked like Urbina being fed to a newcomer. But credit to him, Urbina pulled off the upset and knocked out the debuting Vlasto Cepo in just a minute. In the short term, I doubt this means anything more than Urbina simply extending his stay in the UFC. He will probably need to pull off more than one of these upsets in order to plant his flag in the promotion. It would not be surprising to see him matched up with someone like Michael Oliveira next.
Urbina’s next fight: Michael Oliveira
Noah Gugnon
It can be difficult to gauge the value of a win when it’s two debuting fighters facing off. Since most of the fanbase doesn’t have any prior UFC highlight to go off of, it’s hard to know what this type of win teaches us about Noah Gugnon. For that reason, I think the UFC would be wise to treat Gugnon’s next fight as his actual debut and therefore approach the matchmaking in that fashion. Someone like Nikolas Motta is a known commodity at lightweight: dangerous, but vulnerable. Someone that will test the 25-year-old Frenchman without being an insurmountable task.
Gugnon’s next fight: Nikolas Motta