At ARMMADA 18 this Saturday, the up-and-coming Serbian fighter Nikola Gradinac takes on his most experienced opponent to date. In what will be his second main event as a professional, Gradinac is taking on 21-15 Taffarel Brasil, who has fought the likes of former UFC fighter James Llontop and current UFC star Carlos Prates.
Just like last week’s fighter, Tapology doesn’t have all of the results for Gradinac’s amateur fights. I wasn’t able to find his exact record as an amateur, but he had at least two more fights than there are listed.
Training out of Family Fight Team with new UFC signee Jovan Leka, Gradinac had his first fight as a professional in July of 2024 at only 20 years old, and has been on a path of destruction since. In the three fights he had in his debut year, none of Gradinac’s opponents made it past 40 seconds. Then, in his 4th fight, his opponent, Giorgi Kvelidze, didn’t completely roll over and extended the fight beyond a few minutes. We got to see a bit more of Gradinac’s overall skillset, but he still hadn’t faced any adversity yet.
A little under two months ago, in his most recent fight, he took on Dušan Marković, an opponent who could finally cause him problems. As an amateur, Marković took another good prospect in Martin Kozák to a split decision and had gotten off to a 2-0 start as a pro. While there were definite hints of a good prospect in his quick knockout victories, seeing Gradinac put it all together over two rounds against Marković made me very interested to see how he develops as a fighter.
Offensively, Gradinac is a pretty well-rounded fighter, and his insane athleticism pairs with that to make him a nightmare to deal with. On the feet, he is quite twitchy, and in a complete game, he can pull all sorts of feints to keep his opponent on their toes. Gradinac likes to fight on the front foot, moving forward, and is not afraid to be the one to throw first, but he is also very good at drawing out attacks. The forward pressure, combined with all the feints, makes opponents feel trapped, so they throw to try and stop the pressure.
Gradinac typically fights behind a solid jab and a great straight right down the pipe but can throw wild at times, too. In his first few fights, when he had his opponents hurt, he unleashed a relentless barrage of hooks and power punches to finish them. His kicking game is powerful and not extremely diverse, but Gradinac knows what he’s good at and sticks to it. He throws a good right leg kick and will sometimes step off to his left to throw a right head kick as well. Defense on the feet is his biggest hole, but I’ve seen him eat two flush headkicks and barely react. Not that you want to rely on your chin for defense, but at only 21 or 22, he can continue to improve that part of his game.
While he can do damage on the feet, Gradinac also has good wrestling to fall back on if need be. Takedowns were part of every amateur fight I could find, but as a pro, we didn’t see a fight hit the ground until his fourth bout. He has a lightning-quick double leg that he will shoot off of a jab or big overhand, which pairs very well with how often he feints. In his last fight, we saw Marković able to get up from takedowns a few times, but Gradinac is relentless. He isn’t afraid to grind and wear his opponent down up against the cage to get the fight to the ground. Once Gradinac is able to ground his opponent, he doesn’t throw nonstop ground-and-pound; he picks his openings well. When he established position in his most recent fight and went for the finish, his ground-and-pound was brutal.
As for defensive grappling, in his pro fights and the amateur fights I found, he was extremely hard to get down. Gradinac has strong hips and great reactions, so his first-line takedown defense is very effective. When an opponent has taken him down, Gradinac has popped back up almost immediately. It will be very interesting to see how his gas tank holds up in a back-and-forth fight that goes into round three, but his cardio was at least promising in his last fight.
This weekend, Nikola Gradinac looks to continue carving out his destructive path toward a big promotion as he takes on MMA veteran Taffarel Brasil. With the skillset and the physical qualities to become a very good fighter at only 21 or 22, it will be fun to follow his development as a prospect.
