Rakic moves to heavyweight for UFC Belgrade bout against Tybura

Aleksandar Rakic will step up to heavyweight for the first time in the UFC when he faces Marcin Tybura at UFC Belgrade on August 1 at Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, Serbia. The promotion confirmed the matchup on Monday.

Rakic, 34, arrives at the new weight class on the back of four straight losses at 205 pounds. His most recent outing came at UFC 321 earlier this year, where he was stopped by Azamat Murzakanov via first-round TKO. The Austrian had previously built a reputation as a legitimate light heavyweight contender, winning six of his first seven UFC appearances, before defeats to Jan Blachowicz, Jiri Prochazka, and Magomed Ankalaev derailed his title ambitions.

Tybura, 40, represents a seasoned test for Rakic’s heavyweight introduction. The Polish veteran carries a 15-10 record across a UFC tenure stretching back to 2015 and is a former M-1 Global champion. He enters the fight having lost back-to-back bouts against Ante Delija and Tyrell Fortune, but his résumé includes wins over Andrei Arlovski, Stefan Struve, Serghei Spivac, Ben Rothwell, and Tai Tuivasa.

UFC Belgrade is headlined by a welterweight contest between Uros Medic and Daniel Rodriguez, with a middleweight bout between Dusko Todorovic and Robert Valentin also confirmed for the card.