Uros Medic on Daniel Rodriguez's Prison Stint: 'A Stain on All Our Names'

Uros Medic gets the moment he's been chasing this Saturday: the first UFC main event ever staged in Serbia, at a sold-out Belgrade Arena, with the hometown crowd behind him. Standing across the cage is Daniel Rodriguez, the #15-ranked welterweight (20-5, 9 KO, 4 SUB) who fights for the first time in over a year after serving eight months in a Mexican prison on a marijuana possession charge. Rodriguez was released in April. Medic isn't spending much time feeling sorry for him.

Both men arrive on three-fight win streaks, so the stakes are real regardless of the backstory. Medic told MMA Fighting that hearing about any athlete getting tangled up with the law is unfortunate, but he framed it bluntly: it puts a stain on all of their names, and he doesn't respect it. He allowed that Rodriguez is human and mistakes happen, then pivoted straight into how he tries to represent something different.

No Sympathy Once the Door Locks

Medic's message boiled down to a distinction he keeps drawing between himself and fighters who court controversy. He said he studies, carries himself professionally, and stays out of trouble with drugs or the law — and while he admitted he's no saint, he doesn't expect to end up in the news getting arrested. He also took a shot at coverage of the sport, arguing that media outlets are eager to write another bad story about an MMA fighter, and he refuses to feed into it.

The well-wishing has an expiration date. Medic said he hopes Rodriguez is in a better place now, but once Saturday night comes and the octagon door closes, he intends to hurt him. That's not empty bravado given his recent form.

Why Medic Is Dangerous Here

In February at UFC Houston, Medic flattened Geoff Neal in a little over a minute — Neal (16-8) took the R1 knockout on the chin, and it was Medic's third straight first-round finish. That kind of early-round violence is exactly what a partisan crowd shows up for. Rodriguez, by contrast, comes off a grinding unanimous-decision win over Kevin Holland at UFC 318 in July 2025, then a year of forced inactivity behind bars.

Medic already has his headline written. He said the papers will read 'The Doctor is in,' and that another finish is all he's really after. Whether Rodriguez's ring rust holds up against a surging finisher on hostile ground is the whole question — and it's the reason this booking became a five-round main event in the first place.