Preview: UFC Belgrade prelims

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is set to touch down in Serbia for the first time, but everything about the card proclaims that it won’t be the last. Actually, would you allow your friendly neighborhood preview writer a moment of personal reflection? If not, feel free to scroll until you see the words “Ludovit Klein vs. Tofiq Musayev” on your screen, but if you’ll indulge me, I promise we will circle back around to the card currently under discussion. UFC Belgrade will be the last card I cover for Sherdog after eight and a half years with the site, including previewing every single UFC event since June of 2020 in podcast and/or article format. If six years doesn’t sound very long when talking about a sport that is about to celebrate its 33th birthday in November, consider that thanks to the promotion’s ballooning schedule, about a third of the nearly 800 events in UFC history have taken place on my watch. In the year I started watching MMA obsessively, 2003, the UFC put on five shows. Last year it promoted 42, without even counting “The Ultimate Fighter” and “Road to UFC.” If “ballooning schedule” sounds like a criticism, it isn’t meant to be, at least not entirely. Forty-plus events a year do make for a grueling grind, and you can count me among the many fans and media members—not to mention the growing contingent of UFC fighters—who could stand to see fewer events at the Apex, but I also remember the days when MMA was an underground, underdog phenomenon, when it would have seemed ridiculous to predict the kind of mass acceptance the sport has achieved in the 2020s. The UFC’s event at the White House last month was certainly a sign of the sport’s rising profile, and it’s what the promotion itself touts as “the biggest sporting event ever,” but that feels more like a confluence of the right president at the right time to create a truly surreal moment. Certainly there’s no indication that the South Lawn is about to become a yearly destination for the Octagon, nor do we expect any lasting impact on regional MMA in the Washington D.C. area. What’s more heartening to me as a longtime fan of the sport is that even in 2026, the industry leader continues to push out the corners of the map. In the last 18 months alone, the UFC has established its presence in two new nations—Azerbaijan and Qatar—and is about to make it three on Saturday. That kind of geographic push helps grow the sport as a whole by raising local interest in MMA and shining a light on standout regional promotions: Brave CF and UAE Warriors had been around for years, but only became known as top-tier prospect pipelines once the UFC began traveling to the Middle East multiple times a year. Which brings us to this weekend and UFC Belgrade. Much like the UFC’s second trip to Azerbaijan a month ago, this weekend’s card is an indication that the promotion is interested in cultivating a relationship with the region. The show is headlined by Uros Medic, a native Serbian and easily the top Balkan fighter in the UFC at the moment, in a matchup that’s likely to let him shine, and the rest of the 14-fight card features Central Europeans in virtually every bout. That is especially true of the prelims, which are loaded with debuting prospects…as you are about to see.Lightweights Ludovit Klein (24-5-1) vs. Tofiq Musayev (23-6) BETTING ODDS: Klein (-230); Musayev (+190) Slovakia’s “Mr. Highlight” (8-3-1 UFC) squares off against Musayev (1-1 UFC) in a clash of lightweight fringe contenders coming off wins in their last outing. Klein has had two different lives in the Octagon: first as an exciting action fighter who couldn’t seem to buy a win at featherweight, then as a lightweight who has gone 7-1-1 and appears to have Top 10 upside in one of the UFC’s deepest divisions. Klein is a better fighter at 155 pounds despite being visibly small for the division for two reasons: One, his blistering speed and explosiveness are even more of an advantage against heavier opponents; and two, the easier weight cut clearly leaves him more comfortable employing his impressive arsenal of offensive weapons at the kind of pace he prefers. Klein is an excellent kickboxer with fast, powerful kicks from both legs and out of either stance. While he can still sometimes spend too much time waiting for the perfect moment to explode with flurries of offense, he has gotten much better at simply moving forward, throwing punches in combination and forcing his opponent to react. That has had the effect of helping him win close rounds while still allowing his opportunistic, creative bursts on the feet. While Klein is nobody’s idea of a grinder, that is due mostly to his high-flying highlight reel. In reality, he has always been a willing and capable offensive wrestler; the same fast-twitch athleticism that allows him to throw a quick head kick powers his single-leg takedown entries, and he is good at chaining techniques to at least keep the sequence going. His willingness to shoot takedowns has contributed to his impressive run at 155 pounds, as it gave much taller, striking-oriented foes like Ignacio Bahamondes and Roosevelt Roberts something else to worry about, which in turn affected the striking exchanges. Five years ago, a case could be made that Musayev was one of the top two or three lightweights outside the UFC, as the Rizin Fighting Federation grand prix winner and one-half of its inaugural lightweight title fight. Much of that shine came off in bad losses to Roberto Satoshi de Souza and Alexandr Shabliy, as well as a couple of year-plus layoffs due to injury, and most of the rest of it came off, fairly or not, in his UFC debut last summer against Myktybek Orolbai, who came in nearly a full weight class heavy and then unsurprisingly rag-dolled him, bullying him on the ground and tapping him out in less than a round. Musayev bounced back nicely from that loss at UFC Seattle in March with a rousing decision victory over Bahamondes that saw the Azerbaijani upend a 3-to-1 favorite and pick up “Fight of the Night” honors. Just as importantly, he showed himself to be more or less as advertised: a well-rounded fighter who prefers to work as a distance striker, throwing fast, accurate punch combinations and a fantastic array of kicks from both sides, including teeps up the middle and switch kicks to all levels. Musayev’s offensive wrestling is a sneaky, underused weapon, while his takedown defense had been more than good enough unless he was facing a 165-pound Orolbai. This should be a fantastic scrap. Musayev is coming off a bonus-winning performance, Klein is always a threat to pick up an extra check, and while the odds clearly favor Klein, Musayev was a bigger underdog against Bahamondes and seemed completely unfazed. However, I do lean heavily towards Klein in this matchup. Both fighters favor the same kind of scrap on the feet, but Klein is younger, quicker, less shopworn and a harder hitter. And while both men have underrated offensive wrestling, Klein has far more of a demonstrated willingness to use it at key points in a fight. The pick is Klein by decision in a clear frontrunner for “Fight of the Night” honors. Jump To » Klein vs. Musayev Elliott vs. Oliveira Nikolic vs. Vologdin Buzukja vs. Grad Rebecki vs. Prepolec Milosevic vs. Cowan Leka vs. Poppeck Spasic vs. Luciano