Dennis Buzukja has challenged the circumstances of his loss to Bogdan Grad at UFC Belgrade, saying the featherweight bout was stopped despite there being no submission and no tap. The result came during the prelim portion of the promotion’s first-ever event in Serbia, where Buzukja and Grad entered on back-to-back defeats. Buzukja’s response focused not on a disagreement over a judges’ scorecard, but on the referee intervention that ended the contest in the second round.
Grad secured an arm-triangle position late in round two, but the sequence immediately became the central issue of the fight. Jason Herzog pulled Grad away and waved off the contest. According to the supplied account, replays showed Buzukja trying to move Grad’s legs to the side, an action Herzog mistook for a tap. That distinction is crucial to Buzukja’s reaction: he did not argue that he had escaped a completed submission after conceding; he said the fight had been halted before a tap or a fully secured choke. In an Instagram story, Buzukja said he did not know what to say about the stoppage and described it as a fight being taken from him. He also said there were 10 seconds left in the round and believed the bout would have been level at 1-1 going into the third.
Dennis Buzukja details his objection
Dennis Buzukja said the referee stopped the fight with “no submission, no tap.” He added that the choke “wasn’t even in,” while acknowledging the emotional difficulty of processing the ending. His comments were direct about the standard he believed should have applied: “I would’ve went to sleep if there was a submission.” That statement frames his complaint as one about the absence of a clear finish rather than simply disappointment with the result.
Buzukja also described how he viewed the momentum before the intervention. He said he had started getting his distance, hurting Grad, wobbling him and feeling Grad fade. Those are Buzukja’s own impressions of the action, not an official reassessment of the result, but they explain why the timing of the stoppage mattered so much to him. With only seconds remaining in round two, he believed he still had a path to continue into a deciding third round. The reported replay description adds another layer: the movement that appeared to be Buzukja attempting to shift Grad’s legs was interpreted by Herzog as a tap. The official stoppage nevertheless left Buzukja with another defeat at a difficult point in his recent run.
Recent results put result in sharper focus
The UFC Belgrade defeat was Dennis Buzukja’s fifth loss in six fights, according to the supplied report. His previous outing came in April, when he suffered his fourth loss in five fights after being knocked out by Marcio Barbosa. The source says the newest result potentially marks the end of Buzukja’s UFC tenure, but it does not confirm that any release or roster decision has been made. That distinction matters: the controversy surrounding the stoppage is established by Buzukja’s account and the replay description, while his future with the promotion remains presented only as a possibility. Grad, meanwhile, entered the contest after back-to-back losses as well. His most recent defeat had come last November, when Luke Riley knocked him out. The fight therefore paired two featherweights looking to reverse recent setbacks, before the late second-round ending shifted attention to the referee’s call.
- Dennis Buzukja said there was no tap and that the arm triangle was not fully in when the fight was stopped.
- Dennis Buzukja said he believed the bout would have been 1-1 entering round three, with 10 seconds left in round two.
| Confirmed point | Detail from the supplied report |
|---|---|
| Event setting | UFC Belgrade was the promotion’s first-ever event in Serbia. |
| Dennis Buzukja’s recent stretch | The loss to Bogdan Grad was described as his fifth loss in six fights. |
| Prior Dennis Buzukja bout | He was knocked out by Marcio Barbosa in April, according to the report. |
Dennis Buzukja’s UFC Belgrade result now carries two connected realities. Officially, it added another loss to his recent record. From Buzukja’s perspective, however, it ended on a premature call: he maintains there was neither a tap nor a completed submission. The supplied report raises the possibility that the defeat could affect his UFC tenure, but offers no confirmed decision on that point. What is confirmed is Buzukja’s public objection to the round-two stoppage and the replay-based explanation for why the ending became controversial.
Sources: Bloody Elbow
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