MMA Fighting - No Bets Barred: Can Rafael Fiziev Give Azerbaijan Reason To Celebrate At UFC Baku?

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

The UFC is heading back to Baku. This Saturday, the UFC has its final show before a weeklong break, returning to the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the main event, the UFC's biggest Azerbaijani star, Rafael Fiziev, looks to rebound from a difficult loss to Mauricio Ruffy when he takes on surging lightweight Manuel Torres, and No Bets Barred is here to break it all down. This week, host Jed Meshew flies solo to discuss all things UFC Baku, including whether Fiziev can find his form again, if Torres is a legitimate contender at 155 pounds, if this is the end for Michel Pereira, a few hidden gym fights on the card, the restart of The Climb, and more. Tune in for episode 158 of No Bets Barred. Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to MMA Fighting⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our full video catalog⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Like MMA Fighting on Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I am your host of MMAfighting.com, but you probably already know that if you're tuning in and certainly thank you for tuning in this week as we talk about Baku. We are headed back to Azerbaijan for a roadshow fight night card before a week off from the UFC. Obviously next weekend will be July 4th for those of you, you know, either in America or American expats or just, you know, those who love freedom, like we all do after UFC Freedom 250. the UFC is taking that weekend off since they've already celebrated America's birthday. And so this is our last card for a couple of weeks. This is the functional go-home show before UFC 329 in the return of Connor McGregor in two and a half weeks from now. So we will have a bit of a break before we get to won't be the biggest event of the year.

I think White House is just going to be the biggest event now. but Cona McGregor's return is obviously major. This is not major, but Baku has a couple of good fights on it. Certainly the main event, there are a couple of hidden gyms on this card, I think, as well. You know, this is sort of our standard roadshow fair that we are looking at this day and age. I would not say that this is the greatest card of all time. And certainly once the UFC has started to build cards like this, right, they are going to Azerbaijan. they are closer geographically to, well, you know, they don't do events in Russia.

I think that that's probably just not really on the table with what's gone on in Russia for the last. Shit, I don't even know how many years at this point. But this trip to Azerbaijan gives them an opportunity to put a bunch of, you know, Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh, fighters from that general geographic area, painting with a very broad brush there. So give me some leeway. on the card and that is what they have done a lot of aves and eves on this card certainly uh in fact does every fight have either an ove or an ev on it is one two three four no but there is only two three fights that don't have obs or abs or abs one of those has an anko on it and the other

has a Bexat, you know? Oh, I guess there's a, no, no, Abdelayev opens it up. So, yeah, I mean, a lot of obs and ebbs in this card. And so you're going to get a relatively high level of overall

quality. Most of the fighters here are at least, what I would call UFC caliber. A couple of really fun fights. So, let's get into it. Brief update on where we stand year to date. Heading into the White House event, I was basically dead even. I had been up

a minute and then I took a couple of losses. White House was a catastrophic card for me. We had a lot more fun than we probably should have. And almost none of those bets cashed for me. So I am now down four and a half units on the year. Also, the climb. It died. Ilya was our climb,

but at the White House, I've never been happier to see a climb lose. And hopefully we'll get back on the train this week. We are, we're going to do two steps. I considered up to five or six for this climb action. We settled on two. And for those of you who are new here, we don't know what the climb is. Lock in.

I'll explain it to you as we get there. But let's start at the top of the proceedings. The main event, Hafeuzev takes on Manuel Torres in a lightweight contest. And quite frankly, a very good fight. I think there's just no other way to say this. but I am extremely interested in the main event this weekend. It is extremely closely lined, basically a stone pickum. Fiziv, a very minor betting favorite on my book at minus 115.

Torres minus 110. Two men coming into this fight on wildly different runs here. Fiziv, one in four over his past five, coming off the TK lost to Marisa Ruffy at 325 back in February. Or I guess 325 was January technically, but technically also kind of February. It was January in America, but February in Australia where the card physically took place. Meanwhile, Torres, he's one of four-and-one run over his past five in the UFC. He's coming off the knockout win over Grant Dawson at 323 in December. A betting trend to sort of look at, Fazeve is a very slight betting favorite here,

even though this is close to his stone pick him. He is only 5-and-5 is a betting favorite. So that is a little bit concerning, but more concerning is the big picture of this fight, because Fiziv is on such a bad run. And quite frankly, I think has looked worse since the knee injury that he suffered. Because you go and you look at his, you can make some excuses for Fiziv right now on this one and four run. He's still 33, so not, shouldn't be like too old to be competing. And the four losses, you know, you've got the roughy one. I think that's the most concerning.

He picked up a win of Ignacio Bahamondez before that, which is a good, like a very, very solid win. And his other losses are the two to Justin Gaghi, current lightweight champion, which is still a wild thing to say. And a knee injury against Matush Gamrot, which, you know, sometimes that happens. I do think he just hasn't looked as good since that knee injury, but maybe that's just my mind playing tricks on me because I'm expecting him to look a little worse. It is strange because at one point I thought he was a dark horse to win the belt, and I think that that time's passed, and now Fiziv is just going to be a tough, tough out at lightweight for anybody. And Manuel Torres, meanwhile, on a very good run, the loss that Torres suffered to a guy that Fiziv beat in Ignacio Bajmonde's. He got starched out by Bahaimondez, while Fiziv very recently beat him.

And now we know that Stiles make fights. that does feel a little instructive to me, though, not just because it happened, but the way in which it happened in that. Bahamonday's, I don't think it is the same for same comparison, but there is certainly some overlap in how Torres and Bahamundas fight in that they are very aggressive, their offense first fighters. Sometimes their defense can betray them, right? And I think looking at this matchup, Fiziv certainly seems like the much more technical fighter. the question I have is, is the chin gone? I think it's not, you know, Ruffy caught him as clean as can be,

and Fasiv still managed to work through that. But he was never a high-volume fighter, and it does feel like he's receded a little bit in his output. Certainly it's Ruffie, the storyline of that fight before he got caught, was he's throwing one at a time, and Ruffie is throwing in combination and sort of piling him up. And you look, statistically, Torres is going to land more if they get their way. But a broader concern for me from the Torres side of things is I think he has looked better since the Bahamondas fight.

He's looks much more patient. He's not forcing the issue as much as he previously has. But at the same time, there's a dude who's been out of the first round once in his career, right? And so I do question how this looks against the guy who I think Fazeev is still very defensively sound. His head movement was very good against Ruffy. He got caught. but I am, I think this fight should be lined very evenly. And so it's, it's tough for me to have a major level of confidence.

I'm ultimately going to side with Fiziv here. I think he, this week, you know, you look at his social media. He looks renewed. Take that for it, you will. But I feel like he's got a hometown crowd behind him. He is going to show out here. I'm doing something very, very different this week, though, because there's an obvious gimmick parlay.

And I haven't done enough of those this year. I'm trying to get back to it. And the obvious gimmick parlay is you've got four Azerbaijani fighters competing this week. So you can just tie them all together. Unfortunately, at the time of this recording and when I'm getting my bets in, my book does not have one of these fights available because the opening fight of the evening, Tahrir Abdelaya versus Jefferson Nassiminto, was a relatively late edition, and it's not there. But I, you know, I tied the three Azerbaijani fighters on this card together with,

Fiziv, obviously, being that. And I don't want to be double-exposed on Fassiv. So what I'm going to do is I've got the Azerbaijan parley going. It pays out at just about at plus $2.99. If one of the earlier legs of that parley collapses, I'll then just take a straight bet on Fiziv. I also think there's a chance that the money moves more towards Torres as we get closer. We'll see.

But I think I ultimately like Faziv's defense in this one. Torres, just a little unproven if this fight gets into that. the second and third round. And right now, Fizziv's not quite an unk, but it has been the year of the unk in a lot of ways. And so this just feels like the Bahamundas matchup in which he can get the W. I'm going to side with him in Baku. We all have to drink water. And staying hydrated is one of the simplest ways to feel your best. But come on. How is your relationship with water really? Are you getting enough from it? Is it satisfying you or is drinking it becoming a chore?

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He's four and one over his past five. He coming off a unanimous decision win over Mark Andre Bechrio at Abu Dhabi a year ago in July. Michelle Pira, meanwhile, he's two and three over his past five. Coming in off a split decision win over Zachary Reese, that was questionable back in February at UFC Houston. You know, straight up, this is pretty obvious to me. I think Michelle Beheada is, he's past it. I think he had a small window where he was the best version of himself.

I do think the move to Middoway was broadly good, but this feels like a fight that he is not well set up to even compete in. Sharbillet, never been knocked out. He's a good enough defensive wrestler. I don't think Paeta can take advantage of that. And so I like Sharma bullet to win probably by knockout because Beheada's chin is starting to look a little questionable now. but if he just sort of wins a boring fight,

that wouldn't entirely shock me either. And so, this is the first leg of a two-step climb this weekend. For those of you who do not know, the climb is my intent, my attempt, to string together 30 consecutive bets at around minus 500. Because if you string those all together, minus five, you roll all that into the next one. if you do it 30 times you can turn $100 into like $22,000.

I have been doing this long enough for those who aren't aware. I did this for a lot. I got up to 21 consecutive bets in one of my very early attempts at the climb. It was awesome. I haven't sniffed that lately. But I've lost so many of them. We've turned this into a $50 bet instead of a $100 bet because I just, I'm financially ruined if I keep lighting $100 on fire.

I'll never get to the top of the mountain. But, you know, there's nobility in trying. And so we will attempt to resale that mountain and turn 50 bucks and a little over 10 grand. If we can, this is step one with Sharbollah. Technically, it was step two because of the order of operations. We move to the feature bout of the evening, a lightweight contest between Nazim Sadekov and Matthias Kamilo. Sadekavov, a minus 250 betting favorite.

over Camillo plus 195, Sadiqov 3-1-1 over his past five in the promotion. He got stopped by for S-Ziam at 323 in December. Camillo, one-and-one in the UFC, is coming off a UD win over Slava Clause in November. I think Sadiqov's a better strikler here. Camillo's going to wrestle, and that is slightly concerning because Ziam took Sadiqov down a couple of times, but I think for SZM is a better fighter than Matthias Camillo. Maybe you could convince me that Camillo is undervalued at this price. But as I mentioned earlier, there's an Azerbaijani parlay.

Nazim Sadekov. He is an Azerbaijani fighter. So that's it. He's in the parlay, leg two of that parlay, and we move on to a very fun fight in the flyweight division. Asu Amabayev takes on Charles Johnson. Amabai of minus 250 betting favorite. to come back on Johnson plus 195. I'm a buy it four and one over his last five in the UFC.

He's on a two-fight win streak. So you've got to feel pretty okay about sort of where he's going at this stage of things. He submitted Alex Perez in November at UFC Qatar. That's his last effort. Meanwhile, Charles Johnson, what a strange career, right? He's three and two over his past five. coming off a split decision win over Bruno Silva in March that's a valid win. I think he won that fight.

But is maybe best known as the dude who has knocked out future flyweight challengers, contenders. You know, he caoed Lonnie Kavanaugh. He's probably fighting for a belt soon. He caoed current champion Josh Van. He's very, very strange in that way. It's got a little bit just a touch of the Paul Craig to him and Charles Johnson. So maybe also Amabyev will be best served by losing to him. But I don't think that's going to happen.

Johnson is a good wrestler. I think he has, if memory serves, he has a USA wrestling tattoo. But Amabayev is, he is very committed to it. And when Johnson has faced wrestlers who are committed to taking him down, they have tended to succeed in that regard, right? Like he has given up several takedowns to two good guys trying to do it. but Baham Mahayev took him down like 3 billion times. There is a size discrepancy here.

There is a size discrepancy here. Amabayev is a pretty small flyweight, at least stature-wise. But Charles Johnson's lost two dudes who were of the stature before. And again, if Omabov can get a bunch of takedowns, he's going to win this fight. And I broadly like his chances to do that. Never count Charles Johnson out. I think that that's possible. And I wouldn't really love to lay this price.

on Amabayev, you know, you're two and a half to one here is, that's a little rich from my blood. But I know he is coming off a submission win over Alex Perez. Amabayev is not a guy I think of as a huge finisher. I mean, he does have several of them in his career. But in his UFC run, he's got two of them, right? He had just the two. Ode Alsborn, Alex Perez. I think the likelihood is that if Omabio is going to win, it's going to be on the cards.

and you can get a better price if you bet Amalba by decision at plus 110. So that's what I've done here. We move back to the middleweight division as Icaram Alaskarov takes on Bruno Faheda. Alaskarov, minus 300, betting favorite to come back on Faheda, plus 225. Alaskar 4 and 1 in the UFC, two-fight win streak, unanimous decision win of Virginia Park at 321 in October. Faheda, meanwhile, 3 and 2 over his last five, got knocked out by Robocop March. actually a lot of similarities in this one to the previous one

and that I forgot to mention this talking about Omvive Johnson but Alvive's 5 and O's a betting favorite. Charles Johnson, 4 and 2 is an underdog. So from like a straight gambling perspective, it's a very interesting matchup. Got a little bit of that going on in this one. Alaskar of 4 and O as a betting favorite. Pruno Faheta, 3 and 2 is a dog.

So he's a profitable underdog bet. That being said, I don't think that he will be profitable in this interaction. I think if this fight had to take place purely on the feet, Alaskarov could win. Brunofa Hera obviously is a bit of a thumper, but that's the bulk of what he brings to the table, right? And he's certainly more dangerous early. Alaskarov is a more well-rounded guy.

I think if they had to spend the fight striking, he could win that fight. Probably wouldn't favor him, but he could. But I think he's going to go to his wrestling. Rino Fahed is not the greatest defensive wrestler in the world. Al-Scarav, it might not be the most entertaining fight, but I think Icramal-Las-Garav gets that Sambo going, gets the dub. And that's why this is the second, aka the first leg of the climb this week.

The two-parter for the climb is Shaw-Bullet and Icarav. The $50 bet takes us to $84, which technically gets us ahead of schedule, right? So through two bets, the climb should be, if you're starting at a $50 price point, climb should be about $72 should be your third bet. This one gets us net right up against the three-bet limit. So it gives us room to play with moving forward. You know, it's a two net three. If we see some heavy favorites later on that are a little over our minus 500 price point,

we can use some of the equity we've already got built, or maybe we shortcut this thing if that's what it ends up happening. But hopefully we cash those bets. moving on to the final main card bout of the evening abis magamatov takes on mikhail olixacek sticking in the welterweight division olixacec a very very slight betting favorite minus 115 to comeback on abis minus 105 basically a pickum a fight right here and uh kind of makes sense abe both dudes are three and two over the last five abis is coming off a submission loss to joe pifer at 320 back in october while olick's are a three-fire win streak, right?

Like has been looking pretty good right now. One of those, the most recent of them, being a fight of the night against Marc Andre Bechreux, back in February. So good little run for Mikhail Lixacek, who I think is going to be in the UFC forever because he's just always a super fun guy. And that is a little bit of this matchup.

I think both men like to get after early. Abis has a history of fading down the stretch. And I think Oleg Seychic, if, you know, these two dudes are going to be a car crash early, and if Olexeich can either win that car crash or it just drags a little later, I think he's heavily favored as the gas tank of Abbas does not seem to hold up. So, give me who saw her. Michael O'Eleksacechuk, minus 1.15. I'm taking a play on him.

We move to the prelims where Farman Hosanov takes on Eric Nolan in a welterweight contest. Hasanov making his UFC debut, he's a 5-0 prospect. Nolan, former CFFC champion who lost his UFC debut in August against Basangir Suss, aka Jimmy Suss at 319. Kind of a fun little matchup, probably a fight that shouldn't be on the UFC if we're being real, right? You got like a 5-0 guy versus a good regional fighter who deserve, like, I think it's fine for Nolan to be in the UFC. Hasnov, they could have let this man go through

Contindu Series, but it's obvious why they didn't. They're in Azerbaijan. He's Azerbaijani. As you know, we've got Nazarbay Parley. Hasnov is going to be the third leg of that AZJ Parlay. I will say, though, this fight is interesting, right? Like, I think Hasanov looks like a pretty decent prospect. It's not a ton to go off of.

He's very raw, but he looks like a really good athlete. He's got some ability there. Nolan, meanwhile, the sort of exact opposite, a little bit more polished, certainly much more experience as far as the quality of competition he's faced. He is not a very good athlete. I don't think he has like an enormous ceiling. He can probably hang around the UFC for at least a little bit, but Hosnov's the higher upside. And so I think I'd like him to get it done anyway, even if we weren't doing a good old gimmick, but we are. You know what silently kills sales teams?

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Please enjoy responsibly. We move up to the light heavyweight division as Abdul Rahman Yakyaev takes on Julius Walker and Yakyaev the biggest betting favor on the card, minus 650. The comeback on Walker plus 450. Yakuyaev is 2 and O in the UFC. Both are first round submissions, most recent one being an RNC. Brinson Hibetto back in April. Walker, meanwhile, one and two in the UFC,

came in the UFC and was immediately fighting a top 15 person in Alonzo Minifield. Fell short in that. Most recently, he got T-Koed by Dustin Jacoby, another top-15 opponent. I think at the time, Jacobi was in the top 15, maybe not. But he got T-KObed by Justin Jacoby

back in February. I think, you know, Julius Walker is game, but not exceptional and pretty limited upside. A little bit like Eric Nolan. He's had a tough run of things. things in the light heavyweight division where he's fought too high dude like dudes are just way better than him and it didn't work out meanwhile i think yakov is a very very good uh prospect uh he's coming

off contender series where i comped him to asaamount marzikanov but like a fit version instead of a merzikanov who is like relatively fit but carries it heavy like yakiyev looks like he's there he's athletic he's got a pretty polished not a polished game but a he's pretty smart about fighting like he feels like a natural fighter he understands the flow of a fight i think he's a real prospect i don't mind him being a huge betting favorite um you know it's minus 650s so always always have some caution here because this is a guy who's not that proven at this point but i threw him in a separate parley so i've got the azj the azabarajan parley and i've got just a soup parlay took a couple of other things i was considering maybe i'd throw this in

for the climb. I don't need to overexpose. So, Yakyaev is the first part of that soup parlay, minus 650, throw them in there. You know, get a stew going. Back, back to the middle weights. Nershulton Ruzabayev takes on Andre Pulaev.

Ruzabaiov minus two 10-beding favorite Pulaev plus 170. Ruzabov's Form 1 in the UFC kind of hasn't ever dazzled, briefly tried to go to welterweight. This is an enormous person. but it's just kind of continued to chop wood and put together a good little run here coming off a UD win over Dustin Stolzvitz in May of last year. So over a year since we last saw Ruzabai of compete, and he is getting up there just a little bit in age, you know, like 32 sitting out for a year. That's not what you want.

Meanwhile, Palaev, one and two in the promotion, coming off a unanimous decision loss to Atabotia in January at UFC 324. So he didn't get knocked out by Gotea. but he did still lose that fight. It's going to be a fun matchup of very tall middle weights, 6-5 versus 6-4, just real big boys in there at the 185 pounds. And I just think Roosevelt is better in all phases of the game. Like I did not think of Pulaev as a legitimate prospect or as like a good prospect.

Rizabeth has some flaws, but I think he's got a pretty well-rounded game and think he hits hard. He's a much better grappler. I expect him to get some takedowns because Puleyiv's not a great, defensive wrestler. And sort of just win in all phases, maybe get a finish here. I like Ruzabai if minus 2.10, I think there's value. I think he's under, I think he is undervalued.

He should be close to a minus 300 betting favorite in this one. So I just took him straight. One of my, I think I only have one last straight bet on this card. It's not this one, though, as we move to the featherweight division, Khan Offly takes on Javier Reyes of Lee plus 150 Reyes minus 185. Hopefully two and two in the UFC. He's on a two-fought winning streak, though. Lost his first two, bounced back.

Granted, the most recent was a majority decision over Yiza at 325 back in January that most people think he lost. You know, robbery is a loaded word. I think that this one is certainly trending towards robbery if you look at just how many people believe that he won or lost that fight. Reyes, meanwhile, he made his UFC debut in February. T.K.O. and Douglas Silva, Dan Drogh, coming in off Contender Series where I didn't think much of him was a prospect. I comped him too bad Tony Ferguson

because he's got like a parkour background and he does like, he just kind of is a little wonky in there. But I think he can be fun. I just don't see him as like a high-end prospect. Offly, meanwhile, he's a tough finalist. He lost, I forget who too. He's fun.

He's a, aggressive, you know, and I think that this fight will actually be pretty entertaining, a little scrap. I don't have a great read on who's going to get it done. I think Reyes is pretty game, and he's a better grappler, but, you know, Offley is, he's going to come out aggressive. He's going to try and crack early. This fight goes along, really favor Reyes, and I think he should be the betting favorite anyway, but I'm just going to pass on this one. Talk about another tough finalist, but this guy got the job done in the welterweight division to Neil Donchenko takes on Theodore Bergren and Don Chanko a minus 500 betting favorite against Bergen who's plus 375.

Old Donnie Chanks, he won tough, 2-0 in the UFC. Unanimous decision win over Alex Marono in February, I think that was in February, right? I think so. It's not in my notes, actually. So unanimous decision over Alex Marno, I do believe. It was earlier this year, I'm pretty sure. Bergrin, meanwhile, this is UFC debut. He's 8 and 3 on a two-fight winning street.

So I was originally supposed to be Donchenko versus Andreas Gustafson, who withdrew from the bout. Bergen steps in. Both dudes pretty athletic, pretty physical. I haven't seen a ton of Bergerin, so I don't have like a massive amount of confidence in him, but I've seen a little bit. Donny is very physical.

I do question his gas tank, the Morono fight. Marano's pretty cooked. And while Donchenko's beating the brakes off him, he sort of gassed out a little bit at the end and kind of hung on to a victory there. Bergerin, you know, he can crack. I think these two dudes are just going to get there. Bergrin's defense, from what I've seen, appears to be a bit of a question mark.

Kind of just drops his hands. I think they're going to rock them, sock him a little bit here. I think they're just going to sort of throw at each other and see what happens. And so taking the inside the distance, that this fight does not go to a decision at minus 400 and putting that in my stew, just my little, eh, here's some odds and ends, see what happens, a little booyabase here. I had some people, you know, the wonderful Alexander K. Lee, he suggested that inside the distance could be the climb. I thought about it.

Too many variables at this point, I don't really want to have climbs where a person's making their debut. So put it in the stew, set it, and forget it. Two more fights to discuss. A bantamweight contest, BXAT, Al-Makconn versus Gene Matsumoto, and arguably the second best fight on the whole card, best fight outside of the main event. Almecon plus 125, Matsumoto minus 155. Almacan 1 and 2 in the UFC,

but it is deceptive. He's coming off of a unanimouss, and lost to Alexander Tuporia, who's pretty good, and he's just fought all hitters, is the thing. Like, his UFC run has just been dudes who are extremely,

extremely good. Umarna Magamatov was his debut. Brad Katona, the ultimate champion, as Alexander Kaley calls him. and then Alexander Tuporia. He beat Brad Gatona, lost the other two. So this is, he's fought a lot of really strong guys

and comported himself well, given a good accounting of his abilities. And straight up, John Matsumoto has done the same thing. I was super high on Matsumoto coming off Contender Series. A couple of years ago, I think that was 2023. So he's been around for a hot minute at this point. He's three and two in the promotion. I would have him at 5 and 0.

He has gone to a split decision in three consecutive fights, and I thought he won all three. He officially lost to Freed Basharat and Rob Font. I would not call either of them robberies. I think more people believe Rob Font won than Matsumoto did, and that's, again, totally fine. I scored it from Matsumoto, but no issue with Rob Fonk getting that. I think more people thought he beat Freed Basharot, and I certainly did. It is certainly a concern with his style where he is not winning definitively in some of these. But, you know, if he was 5 and 0 right now in the OC, John Matsumoto wouldn't be on the prelims.

This guy would be, you know, in the rankings and push in for something here. And so again, Amalekon gets a tough, tough outhanded to him. I love this fight. I think both dudes are super well-rounded. Both dudes really want to strike, but they can grapple if necessary. they can mix in grappling as sort of an off-speed pitch. I think Matsumoto hits a little bit harder. Backsat probably throws a little more volume.

I actually didn't check this out from a statistical standpoint, but now I kind of want to pull this up and see. Like, I surprisingly know Matsumoto actually lands more in combination. Backsat statistically is actually quite bad as a defensive wrestler, but take into account dudes he's faced. I see this fight is very good but John Matsumoto is my guy and so I'm going to ride with John Matamato

at minus 150 actually the price came down since I took these notes and when I made the bet minus 150 for John Matamato and I am looking at the over in this one the over one and a half is minus 450 I think it's pretty obvious why in Matsumoto's five he's gone to the cards

in his last four fights inside the UFC and while Almecon did knock out Brad Catona, again, I think John Matsumoto's a little bit better, and he's gone to a decision in his two losses. So give me Jean Matsumoto and then take that over one and a half and put it in my stew with Yakayev, with Donchenko Berger and inside the distance. You pair the three of those things up, you get minus 130 is basically the price point there.

and the first fight of the evening, the last fight we'll discuss this weekend here. Abdoliath takes on Jefferson Nassiminto in a Walterway contest. I talked about it before. This is a late addition to the card, and I don't have that much, frankly, information. These are two UFC debutants. Obdialev's getting this fight. Probably deserves it. He's only on a four-fight winning streak, but he's been some decent opposition.

This winning streak is actually mostly Buns. But he has done some decent work on the regional circuit, despite suffering a couple of of losses, but he's Azerbaijani. And so they want to add a curtain jerker with an Azerbaijani dude. Nassimento, he's an LFA champion. He's also made his UCDB 13 and now. I think both guys are UFC quality.

I think that this is like a reasonable fight to add to this card. Good for them to not like force the issue and make this happen on a contender series. But I don't have a great read. I haven't seen that much of either guy. I've seen enough to have some thoughts. you know, I think Nassiminto Nassimito feels very raw to me like extremely raw as far as a talent goes

despite, you know, having some good wins on the resume. I'll have certain little more polished. He's kind of a rugged guy. Like he's physical, but maybe not traditionally, not explosively athletic, but physical. Whereas Nassiminto's maybe a little bit more. Like you can see the upside for Nassiminto over Objel I have.

I think this is a great fight. If it was at my book, I would have added it to the Azerbaijan Parlay just for it, but I wanted to get my bets in, and so I didn't, but if you're doing an AZJ Parley, I think that's totally reasonable.

Minus 20, it ups the price, but I'm just going to enjoy this one. And I'm just going to enjoy this whole card, ladies and gentlemen, UFC Baku, Saturday morning. Important to remember, it is, I think, 9 a.m. Eastern is the start time for this card.

We will, of course, then we'll, of course, fighting have all your coverage for the week we will have a preview show on friday there will be a post show i don't know who's doing it there will be i assume a pre-fight q and a with mike keck on saturday morning and then we're off we get a we get a nice little casual week off to decompress it's been a very busy summer and get to build up our energy stores before ufc 329 in the return of kana mcgregor as you matches max holloway so keep a lock to mhmifide.com thank you for tuning in uh as always you certainly don't have to.

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