Rita is far from the only Academia Unlimited fighter on the card. Alex Cruz faces Nikita Kikhay, and teammates Pedro Cristóvão, Tiago Janeiro, Axel Furtado and Douglas D'Angelis all compete on the night too. The promotion is on its third edition and pulling national talent inland.
What Saturday actually settles
Nothing, if you mean Belgrade. One bantamweight fight in Guarda does not add to a world final or take anything away from it.
Everything, if you mean the counter. Professional careers get built one round at a time, and the second fight is where a fighter finds out whether the first one taught him anything. Rita has already done the harder thing. He has stood in a world final with a country watching. Guarda is a smaller room than Belgrade, and right now it matters more.
He trains at Academia Unlimited in Barreiro under Luis Barneto. He is not the only IMMAF world medallist on the BDZ Management roster either, which tells you something about the level Portuguese MMA is producing. Alex Rita's full profile is here.