Alexander Poppeck (right) will make his UFC debut on Aug. 1. |
📷: PFL MMA

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The
Ultimate Fighting Championship's upcoming visit to Serbia will
see new European talent make his Octagon debut.

Alexander
Poppeck (21-5) recently signed with the UFC. The German is set
to make his promotional debut against fellow UFC debutant Jovan Leka
(13-2) at
UFC Belgrade on Aug. 1 at Belgrade Arena.

Jovan Leka brings a six-fight winning streak into UFC Belgrade
against Alexander Poppeck

While Poppeck competes at light heavyweight, he will move up to
heavyweight for his upcoming bout. Notably, the 34-year-old had
suffered a knockout loss to Jamahal
Hill on
Dana White's Contender Series back in 2019.

One of the biggest names in Oktagon
MMA, Poppeck is unbeaten in six outings (1 NC) since 2023, with
four finishes. Meanwhile, Leka will have the Serbian home crowd
rallying behind him and is on a six-fight winning streak with four
finishes.

Leka earned a win on Contender Series last year but failed to
impress UFC CEO Dana
White and the matchmakers. The 24-year-old then picked up two
finishes outside the promotion before the UFC Belgrade opportunity
came about.

Kamaru
Usman is weighing options regarding his future in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.

After suffering a one-sided loss to Dricus Du
Plessis in the
UFC Oklahoma City main event, the former welterweight champion
admitted that retirement is now a legitimate possibility as he
evaluates the next step in his career.

Kamaru Usman discusses retirement, Dricus Du Plessis loss and
his UFC future

Usman plans to consult his coaches before making a decision on his
future. The Nigerian-American revealed that retirement is very much
on the cards after his recent defeat.

“Right now, I just have to sit with the coaches, sit with the team,
assess everything,†Usman said on the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast.
“Assess the place where I'm at in my career. Just all in all, see
whether it's worth continuing to do this. Whether it's worth
continuing to put them through that.â€

Usman explained that while previous defeats still left him with
positives to build on, the loss to du Plessis felt different. He
cited his knockout loss to Leon
Edwards, the short-notice defeat against Khamzat
Chimaev and the Edwards trilogy bout as performances in which
he still believes he represented himself well.

“This one was a hard one because I felt like I didn't do that,â€
Usman said. “There was something to build off of for those fights.
This one, to the untrained eye, looks like I bit off more than I
could chew. Even though I may not feel that on the inside, it
looked that way and I don't like that.â€

Having accomplished so much in his career, Usman admits it’s
difficult to leave the sport behind after experiencing the highest
highs.

“This is just as difficult a place to be when we've achieved so
much and you've got so many highs in the sport,†the 39-year-old
added. “When you start to feel the lows, it's not that great… It
puts you in a really difficult and really tough place to make a
tough and potentially permanent decision.â€

Ismael Bonfim had a rough weight cut and missed the mark in his
last outing.| 📷: Getty/UFC

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Ismael
Bonfim learned a lesson the hard way in his last fight.

Bonfim took on Chris
Padilla in a lightweight bout in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship this past November. “Marreta”
looked visibly weak and worn out as he weighed in at 161 pounds,
missing the non-title lightweight limit by five pounds. The
Brazilian was then picked apart by Padilla en route to a
second-round stoppage loss.

Bonfim recently recalled the weight-cut fiasco ahead of his last
bout and has made the necessary changes to avoid missing weight
again.

Ismael Bonfim details failed weight cut before Chris Padilla
UFC loss

Bonfim revealed that he had relied heavily on dehydration, leaving
22 pounds to cut on fight week. He decided to stop cutting weight
after his neck started cramping on the day of the weigh-in.

“I relied too much on dehydration,†Bonfim told MMA Fighting. “I
got to fight week still needing to lose 22 pounds. I would stay in
the sauna for 30 seconds, and my body would already start cramping.
I was getting cramps I'd never felt in my life, like cramps in my
neck. That's when we decided to stop the weight cut.â€

He is now scheduled to face Axel Sola at

UFC Abu Dhabi. Making weight shouldn't be an issue for Bonfim
as he has started managing his weight seriously since his last
Octagon outing. The 30-year-old believes moving up a weight class
would have ended his career and he's made sure to keep his
out-of-camp weight low going forward.

“We finally got serious,†Bonfim added. “We make a lot of mistakes
because things are too easy nowadays, but enough is enough. Moving
up to welterweight would've been crazy. I'm already small for
lightweight. Going up to 170 would've been the end of my career.
That's where it would've ended. I'm a lightweight, and from now on
I'm going to do things the right way. I'm not going to let my
weight go above 176 [pounds].â€

Bonfim (20-6) will look to rebound from a two-fight slump when he
faces Sola, who is eager to bounce back from his lone career loss
against Mason Jones
this past March.

#UFCAbuDhabi’s Ismael
Bonfim “finally got serious” with diet after collapsing on the
scale before #UFC
fight:

“I relied too much on dehydration. I got to fight week still
needing to lose 22 pounds. I was bringing it down little by little,
and on the day of the weight cut I still… pic.twitter.com/1NkGp0ZRZY

— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting)
July 23, 2026