Uros Medic said the UFC Belgrade main event is his responsibility to close. Medic faces Daniel Rodriguez on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026, at Belgrade Arena in the UFC’s first event in Serbia.
“I’m great. Thank you for asking. Thanks for having me. A super exciting historic event in Serbia. I am super stoked.”
Medic was speaking with MMA Junkie before UFC Belgrade.
Medic enters as the UFC’s No. 14 welterweight with a 13-3 record. His official UFC profile lists 11 knockout wins, 2 submission wins, and 10 first-round finishes. Rodriguez is No. 15 at welterweight and is listed at 20-5, with 9 knockouts, 4 submissions, and 5 first-round finishes.
Medic said the original callout was Leon Edwards, but he did not object when the UFC booked Rodriguez for the Serbia headliner.
“I don’t care. Whoever they put in front of me, I fought everybody. I fought that Mkhitibek kid on a three-day, four-day notice. They told me he was a striker. The kid ended up wrestling me the whole time. I couldn’t care less. I’ll fight him again sometimes down the road. I’ll knock his brains out. So, it doesn’t really matter to me. With proper preparation, a good camp, I can finish anybody and I’m going to this Saturday night with Daniel Rodriguez.”
Watch the MMA Junkie interview below:
Medic said Serbia has already responded to the UFC’s first Belgrade card, and he expects the live crowd to carry the night.
“It’s huge. I think people are going to show up in huge numbers. The country has been buzzing. The city I’ve been in, two cities, the city I grew up in and now in Belgrade, and it’s just buzzing with UFC going on this weekend. My phone is blowing up and I am not even trying to answer anything.”
“I totally believe so. I mean, we are, it’s going to be, you know, a thing to witness, I think. And if that is the case, then I’m sure next year the tickets are going to sell even faster, even though now it took them only an hour or less. It’s going to be even faster next time once people, the rest of the world see what this is all about. We could be hosting some international fight weeks here instead of Las Vegas because we’ve got the capacity to support it and we’ve got the fan base.”
“Obviously, I mean, it’s on me to wrap it up and kind of, you know, put an icing on the cake of this event and deliver a spectacular finish so we can all go home and just enjoy and celebrate.”
Medic also made clear that he is not planning around a cautious five-round scorecard.
“I’m a fighter, man. I come here to fight and they know it and obviously I found myself in this position for a reason. People love to see a fighter and that’s what I am. I’m not playing points games. There’s no hugging. There’s no dragging around. There’s no decision merchants around me. Like we’re going to fight. You love it or not, you’re going to have to fight. You’re going to get hit and once you get hit, it’s not going to feel good.”
Medic’s Read On Rodriguez
Rodriguez brings a three-fight winning streak into the matchup after wins over Santiago Ponzinibbio, Kelvin Gastelum, and Kevin Holland. Medic acknowledged Rodriguez’s record and durability, but he tied that scouting report to his own history of stopping durable opponents.
“He’s made his name in this division. He’s 20 victories, five losses. He’s a great fighter and has fought and almost finished some of the really, really good fighters as well. So, with that being said, I think his biggest attribute is just that he can take a punch, and he just kind of keeps going. But I’ve met fighters like that before. I’ve crossed paths with fighters that can take a punch.”
“How many people knocked out Tim Means? None or maybe one and that one being me. Omar Morales, he didn’t get finished by anyone but me. He was not, he’s now out of the UFC, but Matthew Semelsberger has not been knocked out by anyone before I knocked him out. And obviously later in his career he was done and gone, but Muslim Salikhov, I don’t know if he’s ever been knocked out either.”
“So to all these guys that come around and they’re like, ‘Oh, you know, they’re tough, and they haven’t, they don’t get finished. They don’t get knocked out.’ Sure, they don’t, but they also don’t face a fighter like me. I come to fight, and every second of that fight is going to be a fight.”
Medic said his finishing runs are not reckless when he has an opponent hurt.
“If you pay closer attention to my fights and my finishes, why I’m really good when I smell the blood and I go for a finish to get the finish, I don’t go all out crazy. In fact, I have done that in the past and just kind of been throwing barrage of punches and half of it not landing, but since then, it’s been very calculated finishes.”
“If I do smell the blood, I will know where to find the finish. Otherwise, I’m not going to force it. It will come later in the rounds or, I mean, you’ve seen me finish a guy with a spinning back elbow in the third round. Like this is, you know, and that wasn’t an accident.”
Medic’s Welterweight Plan After Belgrade
Medic’s immediate next step is Rodriguez. If he wins, he still sees Edwards as a realistic name, with Jack Della Maddalena, Carlos Prates, and the belt further up the road.
“I’m down to fight, man. I don’t care. It doesn’t really matter. Leon or this or that. Like whoever it is, whoever they put in front of me, I’ll fight him. Obviously, I called for Leon because his placement in the rankings was good. It was a realistic fight to make.”
“Even though I’d love to fight Prates, and I know that that’s going to be a fight to be remembered forever. But that’s for down the road. I got to get past the guys that are ranked a little lower than him. So maybe Leon Edwards and JDM, and then we move on to Prates and belt.”
Medic also gave a direct prediction for the UFC 330 welterweight title fight between Islam Makhachev and Ian Machado Garry.
“Exciting fight, and I think Islam Makhachev will finish him. There’s going to be a little bit more of a reign before the Dagestani guys are done and gone and forgotten. They are exceptional athletes, exceptional fighters, and hard workers. So it is going to be hard to get them out. But obviously, Father Time comes for everybody. So in the next couple years, I think we will see them gone from the top of the division. And as of right now, Ian the Decision Merchant Garry will get finished by Islam Makhachev.”
“The Dagestanis have been setting records for quite a while, some time right now. And I say Dagestanis, I’m predominantly speaking of Khabib and Islam. The rest of the Dagestanis, maybe not as much, but these two guys are very exceptional fighters, and it will be a long time before someone else breaks those records. But I mean, props to them. They have been born and bred into fighting, and obviously the results show their school and their father Abdulmanap, Khabib’s father, has had a blueprint for them to become champions and had a vision and was able to put that vision into reality through them, even though he is now gone. He lives in those memories and lives through them and through those championships and those records.”
For Medic, the Rodriguez fight is the required step before any of those names can become more than a callout. He asked for a UFC event in Serbia after knocking out Geoff Neal, got the headline slot, and now gets a ranked opponent in the first UFC main event of his career.
Rodriguez has already been covered through his Joe Rogan border-jail account and his follow-up on the Mexican prison experience. Inside the cage, the question is whether Medic can extend his finishing streak at home or Rodriguez can turn the five-round assignment into the most important win of his own late-career run.
