Kyle Prepolec is headed back onto a UFC card in a fight that lands at a meaningful moment for him and for the company’s first trip to Belgrade. The 36-year-old from Windsor, Ontario is scheduled to face Mateusz Rebecki on the preliminary card of Saturday’s debut event in Serbia, another chance to turn a long career into a first UFC win.
That is why Prepolec’s name is drawing interest now. He has fought 28 times in mixed martial arts, first reached the UFC in the spring of 2019 after building a 14-5 record, and has spent much of the time since trying to get back to this level. He lost a unanimous decision to Nordine Taleb in Ottawa on roughly a week’s notice, then dropped a bout to Austin Hubbard in Vancouver four months later. After that fight, he was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis and was released from the UFC a few months later as COVID began to spread.
The gap that followed was long. Prepolec spent more than two years out of competition, then returned with a strong run that included four wins in five starts and three straight first-round stoppage victories. That stretch brought him back to the UFC when Joel Alvarez could not make the trip to Montreal last May to face Benoît Saint Denis, but he lost by second-round submission. He then fought Drew Dober in Vancouver last October, and the two earned Fight of the Night honors.
Now the matchup with Rebecki gives Prepolec a different kind of test. Rebecki brings a style that is likely to force pace and punish mistakes, which matters for a fighter still chasing his first UFC victory. Prepolec’s recent run outside that setback suggests he can make a fight ugly, fast and competitive, but the UFC has not been a place where he has yet found the result he wants.
Prepolec said the Belgrade trip means a lot to him, calling it fantastic and pointing to his family background by saying he is half-Serbian and half-Croatian. For him, that makes Saturday more than another booking on a calendar. It is a home-region stage, a chance to keep moving after years of stops and starts, and a fight that could finally give his UFC run the finish it still lacks.
