FNC 21 Zadar: Batur was injured in the main event, Vaso lost and retired!

In front of 8,500 spectators at the sold-out Višnjik arena, we witnessed the first Fight Nation Championship event of 2025. It was FNC 22, and along with nine top-tier fights, we unfortunately saw an injury to the local fighter from the main event, Martin Batur (33, 9-4), while the win on paper went to the Polish fighter Michal Andryszak (32, 28-11).

It’s worth highlighting that Dražen Forgač, as the leader of the best MMA promotion in Southeastern Europe, Fight Nation Championship, and the leader of the best Slovenian MMA promotion, Valhalla Fight Night, announced that VFN has now become part of the FNC family, and we will have smaller events under the name 'FNC Knockout'.

Bare Knuckle Boxing thrills again

The evening was also marked by the retirement of the legendary Vaso 'Psych' Bakočević (35, 5-1), who, after his first loss in bare-knuckle boxing to Petar Ražov (26, 3-0), said it was time for other things and announced his retirement. Another legend, Ivica 'Terror' Trušček (41, 1-0), impressed in bare-knuckle boxing as well, knocking out Ivan Vladimir (35, 0-1) a second before the end of the second round.

The event opened with a fighter from UFC fighter Aleksandar Rakić’s gym, Jure Jurić (27, 2-0), who choked out Jovan Pešić (23, 2-1) at the end of the first round after the opponent stepped in on short notice with only six days to prepare. Then, the winner of the 'Fight of Nations' reality show, Marko Ančić (21, 2-0), also choked out Sami Zarabi (24, 4-3) at the end of the first round.

After four and a half years, we saw Luka Milidragović (25, 4-1) again in the FNC cage, and he delivered an excellent performance, winning by unanimous decision against Luka Ceranje (24, 1-2). In the heavyweight division, Jeremy Kimball (33, 20-11) also won by unanimous decision in a debut fight against Benjamin Šehić (29, 7-7).

In a close fight marked by a point deduction on the scale due to Pawel Politylo (32, 10-5) failing to make weight, and another point deduction for strikes to the back of the head, Ivan Sičaja (31, 7-1) won by split decision. Former KSW bantamweight champion Antun Račić (34, 28-12-1) made his debut under the FNC banner and won by ground and pound at the end of the second round. The co-main event of the evening was between foreign fighters Cezary Oleksiejczuk (25, 15-3) and former UFC fighter Tom Breese (33, 19-6), where the Polish fighter won with a brutal knockout in 1:30 of the first round.

Fabjan vs. Kita in Ljubljana

While tickets are already on sale through Eventim and selling fast, before the main event of the evening, we also learned about the main fighters for the upcoming FNC 22 event, scheduled for April 12 in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, at the Stožice Arena. For his 40th birthday, the biggest star of the organization, Miran 'Slo Rocky' Fabjan (39, 6-3), will fight the experienced Polish fighter Michal 'Masakra' Kita (44, 22-15-1), a former KSW fighter. They had their first face-off before the fight, and Miran, in his style, stated, "Kita will fall like a log."