Navajo Stirling took the Jan Blachowicz fight on less than three weeks' notice after a chain of injury withdrawals reshuffled two UFC cards. His unbeaten record is about to run into a former champion who knows exactly how to grind it down.
Reviewed by BJJ Gyms · Updated 2026-07-28
Records and rankings reported ahead of the August 1 card in Belgrade.
This matchup exists because of a scheduling chain reaction, not a plan. Khalil Rountree Jr. pulled out of his fight with Magomed Ankalaev with an injury, which sent the promotion looking for a replacement. Bogdan Guskov, originally supposed to face Blachowicz, ended up rerouted to fill that spot instead, and Blachowicz was left needing a new opponent with very little runway.
Navajo Stirling, a City Kickboxing product with a perfect 10-0 record, stepped in on less than three weeks' notice. It's a genuine step up in competition for him, since Blachowicz is a former champion with far more experience against elite competition than anyone Stirling has faced in his five UFC wins so far.
Blachowicz enters at 29-11-2 and currently sits ninth in the official light heavyweight rankings. What makes him dangerous here isn't a single dominant tool, it's knowing when to mix grappling into his striking output and how to use the fence to control pace against a younger, more explosive opponent.
That clinch-and-control approach is a distinctly jiu-jitsu-adjacent skill even without a single submission attempt. Slowing a fight down against the fence, draining an opponent's gas tank, and dictating where the fight happens are all things that come from spending real time in wrestling and grappling rooms, not just the boxing gym.
Stirling has shown respectable takedown defense across his undefeated run, which is exactly why the promotion felt comfortable throwing him into this spot on short notice. But defending occasional takedown attempts is a different problem than absorbing a full fight's worth of clinch pressure from someone who has done it at a championship level for years.
If Stirling's title-shot conversation is going to keep moving forward, this is the kind of test he needs to pass. Beating a faded veteran on the feet is one thing; surviving 15 to 25 minutes of a former champion leaning on him against the fence is a completely different resume line.
The event is officially UFC Fight Night: Medic vs. Rodriguez, headlined by a welterweight bout between Uros Medic, fighting on home soil, and Daniel Rodriguez. It takes place August 1 at Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, Serbia, and streams on Paramount+.
For anyone who trains jiu-jitsu or wrestling themselves, the Blachowicz-Stirling co-main is arguably the more instructive watch of the two headline fights. Pay attention to where Blachowicz chooses to clinch and how Stirling responds when he can't simply strike his way out of it.
Here's what's worth knowing before the card airs.
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A chain of injury withdrawals, starting with Khalil Rountree Jr. pulling out of the Ankalaev fight, eventually rerouted Blachowicz's original opponent Bogdan Guskov to a different card, leaving Stirling to step in.
Blachowicz's championship-level clinch and grappling experience is the most commonly cited edge, even though Stirling is undefeated and younger.
A welterweight bout between Uros Medic and Daniel Rodriguez, with Medic fighting on home soil in Belgrade.
August 1, 2026, at Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, Serbia, streaming on Paramount+.