post-fight press conference<\/a>. \u201cIt was crazy. I need to rewatch the tape. I need to see what happened. Because in that moment, I was in the zone trying to keep my composure because it\u2019s been a long time. I missed home a lot and I spent the last two weeks home and I could not feel like home. It just didn\u2019t feel like home. I tried to stay away from the family. I didn\u2019t stay in my house. I was in the city. It\u2019s just a lot.<\/p>\n\u201cSo I\u2019m happy that people showed up and showed so much love and support. I don\u2019t think there was a man alive that could beat me tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the win, Medic has now scored four consecutive first-round finishes and he seemingly puts himself in position for an even bigger opportunity for his next outing.<\/p>\n
Immediately after the win, Medic mentioned Carlos Prates as a potential opponent, but acknowledged that he\u2019s so much further ahead in the rankings that the matchup just might not make sense yet. So instead, he turned his attention towards former UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards, who he also called out after his previous win over Geoff Neal.<\/p>\n
While Edwards is currently riding a rough three-fight losing streak, he\u2019s still embedded in the UFC\u2019s welterweight top 10 rankings and that\u2019s really what Medic is chasing.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeon Edwards [is who I want] if he makes himself available,\u201d Medic said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to bully him anymore. If he doesn\u2019t want to fight, we\u2019ll fight someone else. It\u2019s not a big deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is ranked where I want to be ranked. Because that puts me closer to where I want to be and that is with the belt around my waist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given the reception Medic received at UFC Belgrade on Saturday, the promotion might be willing to grant whatever wish he wants for what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n
While one night doesn\u2019t make a career, Medic definitely ascended to new heights with his performance in front of the Serbian crowd. He may now enter some rarified air as an athlete who can get an entire country behind him whenever he performs and that makes Medic a bankable fighter for the UFC.<\/p>\n
But does that enter Medic into the running as a potential superstar for the UFC?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not his call, but Medic definitely felt like the biggest name in the sport for at least one night with his win over Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean you tell me,\u201d Medic said about his superstar status in the UFC. \u201cI\u2019m just a fighter. I\u2019m just a guy. I follow my dreams. I try to enjoy as much as I can. What I do, it\u2019s a very stressful job but it\u2019s very emotional and it\u2019s also very, very rewarding to come out victorious.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s not, we\u2019ll do something better and that will make us a superstar. But ultimately that\u2019s not the goal. The goal is to live life worth remembering.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The veteran welterweight known for first-round finishes thrilled his home audience on Saturday with a blistering knockout that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-840231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}