MMA Fighting - No Bets Barred | Will Jamahal Hill stop the skid against Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC Baku?

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

The UFC is making its debut in Azerbaijan! This Saturday, UFC Baku goes down from Azerbaijan's capital city, headlined by a light heavyweight banger between former champion Jamahal Hill and recent title challenge Khalil Rountree Jr. The card also features a ripping lightweight contest between Rafael Fiziev and Ignacio Bahamondes, and, of course, No Bets Barred is here to break it all down. This week, host Jed Meshew flies solo to talk about UFC Baku. Topics include whether Hill can stop his current losing streak, just how much Jed loves Bahamondes, Curtis Blaydes vs. Rizvan Kuniev, multiple women's bantamweight bouts, the latest updates on The Climb, and more. Tune in for episode 130 of No Bets Barred. Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠ Follow Luke Noseda: ⁠⁠@MainCardMinute⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What is up, y'all? We are back for another edition of No Bet's Bard. My name is Jed Mushu, and I am your host of this wonderful edition of the program where we will talk, All Things UFC Baku. So thank you for joining me this week. It has been a minute since I've seen you. Last week was UFC Atlanta.

We did not have an episode then. Myriad reasons. I was attempting to get one together anyway. but I was in attendance. As some of you do know, I live in the wonderful ATL, and thus I was doing media stuff all week, along with view personal things in the agenda as well. Simply couldn't get it, and, to be frank,

I do not like to bet on cards I attend, because I will be sitting in Media Row, and I don't want to have a vested interest in a fight as I'm sitting in Media Row. Just sort of a conflict there. I try not to blur the lines on, and so we passed on betting on UFC ATL, total. We passed on a no bet's bar, even though I was going to try and get that together.

And so the last time you heard me was UCC 316, which was a pretty solid card. Didn't do good or bad, lost a little bit under a unit worth of losses. So in totality, we're still down for the year, about 12 units. But the most important thing of UFC 316, the climb was successful. Josh Van got the dub, minus 550 payout. 19 steps of the climb down. If this is your first time listening to No Betts Party, you don't know what the climb is.

First, thanks for joining, man. We're really excited to have you here as part of the family. Usually I have a guest that's this week, you know, time considerations. But the climb is my attempt to string together 30 consecutive bets of around minus 500. Little up, little down, try and keep it in that window. Josh Van was the 19th consecutive step as we attempt to turn $100 in $100 in. to 18 grand. Haven't done it yet, but

19 is a lot of steps. And our current bank roll is, I'll tell you, it's pretty robust, right? We're closing it on 4 grand, and that's considering we took a few hundred dollars out of the bank roll after we got to that halfway mark

just to, you know, a celebration, pay off the previous climbs as we continue to build on this iteration. We'll talk more about the climb later, though, folks, because we have a UFC Baku card to get to the U.S. debut in Azerbaijan this Saturday going down at noon eastern time from Baku Crystal Hall in Azerbaijan. I know very little about Baku, other than that they have an

F-1 race in Baku that I am a particular fan of. But they're also going to be having Jamal Hill versus Khalil Roundtree Jr., a light heavyweight scrap with pretty serious implications. I would say neither may be. is immediately in the title picture, but they are not far off, particularly light heavyweight and particularly given their history. And so, without further ado, let's dive right into this card.

We will keep it breezy because I think this card is quite good. The betting interests in this card are curious, as we'll get to. There are a couple of fights I feel very, very good about. I think you're getting good odds. And then there are several fights and I just, eh, let's not focus too much on them. But the main event, it's a damn good one. Jamal Hill, Khalil, Roundtree Jr. Roundtree Jr.

betting favor and money is coming in on Hill. Roundtree Jr. down to a minus 125 betting favorite. And he come back on Hill around plus 110. Hill, riding a two-fight losing street coming off the TKLost to Uri Perjka at UFC 311, famously. And Roundtree, you know, was on a five-fight win street, got a title fight sort of out of nowhere against Alex Perheira. and came up short in an admirable effort. Won a lot of fans that night despite getting T-K-Oed, I believe in the fourth round off the top of the head.

These two meet. Originally, this was targeted for U.S. Atlanta before I got bumped back. That's a shame. I would have enjoyed attending this one in person, unless we were U.S. Atlanta, in retrospect, could have used a little bit of help. But it's going to Baku, and I am excited for this fight for a couple of reasons.

One, I think it's just going to be a damn good time, right? Like, you got two guys. who are going to throw heat on the feet, certainly willing to take shots to give shots, and I think that's going to result in a good little scrap here. I'm also excited because I think you're getting a great price on Khalil Roundtree. You're just making no mistake. I think he's about to whip Jamal Hill's ass on Saturday.

Maybe I'm wrong, you know, I have been wrong before, let's just say that. But I really like the stylistic. matchup here. I mean, I was frankly impressed with Jamal Hill's effort against a Yeri Perhashka. I thought that Yeri would do what Yeri ultimately did, but credit to Jamal, super tough, super durable, showed a little bit of something, also showed some real concerning weaknesses still in his game. He's just not the most brilliant technician. His footwork is all over the place, gets hit. Gluor Outtree I do think is just a crisper striker and that this fight is primarily going to be contested on the feet, right?

I think Kalil Aronchi's kicks are going to be a huge, huge weapon in this one, Jamal Hill. Not particularly well served to do that. Plus, I think Rountry is going to end up being faster, more explosive. You know, Jamal Hill has power, certainly, but Roundtree, in general, pretty durable. And overall, I think just in this stylistic matchup, I do believe it favors Kalilio Rountry. Never been all the way sold on Jamal Hill. but I do credit him. He has improved in ways that I do not expect

and certainly impress me in some of his latest outings. If he could do it again, great, but I think he's getting a wonderful price at minus $1.25. I was frankly tempted to wait a little bit, given the money already coming on Hill, but it's hard for me to imagine that Roundtree is going to drop to like a plus money here. So jumped on the price, feel good about it.

I was even briefly flirting with some inside the distance, props, stuff like that, but I'm comfortable enough just with this straight-up action, and we can move along to the co-main event of the evening. And it is a lightweight contest, three rounds at 155 pounds. Hafeel Fiziv taking on Ignacio Bahamondez. Bahamondez, your betting favorite at minus 125 as well, the comeback on Fiziv plus 105, Fiziv, on a three-fight losing streak coming off the unanimous decision loss to Justin Gachi back in March. One of the other losses in that losing streak. Two of his three were to Justin Gachis, no real shame in that. And the other was that injury loss he suffered against Gamrod.

Tall, tall task against Bahamundi's on a three-fight winning streak. And coming off the submission win over Jalen Turner back in March. And let's just be clear, Bahamundas, he took the belt, right? Like the my guy, my guy at lightweight. The guy. I had invested much in was Jalen Turner. Ignacio Bahamondez straight up beat Jalen Turner in a way that he stole his essence. Not only did he retire Jalen Turner, he stole his essence, and now Ignacio Bajumandez, he is my guy. He is the man I will stump for, and in this fight I think he's got a lot of advantages,

the biggest of which is just being big. Bahamondes is gigantic. I mean, just an enormous welterweight. Fiziv, not that big or not, sorry, the humong is not an enormous welterweight, enormous lightweight who wouldn't be a small welterweight. Fiziv is a small lightweight.

Not in thickness, he's a real, he's a real sturdy young fella in there, but he's only 5'8, he's not the biggest man out there, like, just a huge cap in here. Like, Fiziv is the same size as Ilya functionally. And strong as an ox, that'll super help him,

but against a guy, who is like six inches bigger than him. I have some real concerns. Bahamonde's great with the volume. He's very durable. Brings more offense to the table. I think you have success in the clinch, a place that Fiziv has historically been pretty strong.

Mainly I just think that like Ba'amondees is on the Ascension. He's my dude. Fiziv, maybe a bit of a question of what could have been. At one point, I thought him as a dark horse title contender. seems that that's probably out of reach now, just given sort of the tough line that his career has taken. Maybe not. Maybe he'll come out here and he'll put Bahamanda's on skates

and reclaim something. But I really like Nacho this weekend. I really, really think Bahamandai is going to get some things going and get a big win and start really asserting himself as a legitimate top-tier lightweight moving forward. So I am also on Ignacio Bahamanda, minus 1.25. That takes us to the feature bout of the evening, a heavyweight contest, and boy,

things might get heavy and weighty in here, because Curtis Blade is taken on Resvan Kunev. Blades, minus 270 betting favorite, the comeback on Kunev, plus 220. Blades 3 and 2 over his past five coming off that loss to Tom Aspinall for the heavyweight belt last summer, last July. Kunev, making his UFC debut, two wins on Contender Series, famously in PFL won in his PFL fight against Hennon Fahedah, future PFL champion, was

overturned because he tested positive for all the steroids. Not just some of them, the whole kit and caboodle. So many steroids that this man should have been in a bodybuilding contest. Anabolic steroids, drostanolone, metanelone,

boldanone, 19 nora and drostorone. Just all the steroids in that one for Rizvan, so that got overturned. Now here he is finally making his UCDB off of Continders series. Bostman rebooked a couple of times. It was set for March a few times. Gets bump back to here. I don't remember the circumstances of that, but ultimately, heavyweight's going to heavyweight. And I really like Curtis Blades to get his hand raised here. Cuniev is just not a massive hitter, and we know at this point that's really the concern for blades. If you are

is Sergei Pavlovich, Tom Aspinall, Francis Ngano, that kind of power. He doesn't have a bad chin, but it's just not otherworldly, and he cannot stand up to cracks like that. That is not really what Cunia brings to the table. I will trust Curtis Blades in a heavyweight grappling contest against just about anybody that exists out there. And so I've actually got double action on this. The first one, I do have a Curtis Plades by decision bet. You can get that at plus 175. Cooney have historically pretty durable blades.

If you get to finish, I won't be stunned that this is a loser, but I do think we're probably going to 15 here. The other one, just got blades in a parlay, just a simple two-leg parlay with a couple of what I think are good value. You know, parlay legs here. Blades at minus 270. I've got them in. As we get to the second leg of that, I will let you all know. and we keep right on rolling back to the lightweight division mctabek-a-o-bye taking on defeat musayev in the people's main event this

saturday musayev making his ucdbue coming off a tin fight winning streak in horizon man who is also in bellator been around the block super talented ranked in a couple of people's in may fighting global lightweight rankings Oral buy. 2 and 1 in the promotion, split decision off to lost to Matush Rebecca back in October that he deserved to lose. But super talented, value kind of came out of nowhere

in the last year and a half. Really, really fun fight. Musayev, your betting favorite minus 165, to come back on Oral by plus 140. And I think that these odds are probably what they should be, but I do believe there's value in Oral Buy. Maasio is a very good striker, good take-down defense, works the body, but Oralbaugh is a guy who's going to stay in your face, going to keep bringing the pressure. You know, good, solid grappler, raw, still needs to develop a lot.

But Musayev maybe, maybe on a, you know, a little bit of a downturn, maybe lights get bright for him in the UFC. We know UFC debuts. Sometimes can be a little tricky out there. and I think Oral Bai has the opportunity at this price to make this close because I do think this fight is going to be close. I think we may well be looking at a splitie. And in that situation, I'd like to be holding the underdog ticket. So I have an underdog bet on McDebec, Oral Buy. And that takes us to another lightweight contest.

You know why this fight card's so great? So many lightweights and bannam weights competing. I got a couple of heavies there that, you know, tempers it. But another lightweight contest, Mazim Sadekhov, taking on Nicholas Mota, Saadikov, minus 460 betting favorite. You come back on Mota plus 360. Sadekav 3-1 and 1 in the UFC coming off his TKO win, a doctor stoppage win over Ishma Bonfine back in February, whereas Mota is 3 and 2 in the UFC with won no contest,

coming off unanimous decision over Mahashate back in November. You know, Sadi's 8 pressure boxer, good clench, good takedowns, or solid enough takedowns. Mota is a counter puncher, you know, just wants to be doing that thing with solid take-down defense. I do think Sadecov is simply better in all phases of the game. And most importantly, when Nigos Mota loses, he gets finished. And every single one of his career losses, five of them, he has been stopped in nine of Sadecov's 10 career wins. He has stopped his opponent. That leads me to believe that if I think Sadiqov is going to win, he's going to win inside the distance.

Instead of taking a $460 price on Sadiqov, you can get Sadegaub ITD at minus 175. I just think that's a much better price for what I believe to be the overwhelmingly likely outcome. So Sadiqav inside the distance is the bet. And transparently, last single bet I have on this card. Do have the other leg to the parlay. And I'll throw out a couple of other points here as we move on. But the only stuff I'm in on, you've largely heard at this point. and we can move to the final fight of the main card

a featherweight contest mohammed naimov taking on bogdan grad naimov minus 235 the comeback on grad plus 205 naimov's 4 and 1 in the promotion in empsonses is one over conno flee back in february grad 1-0 tkow win over lucas alexander in february that he did get a bonus for so good solid debut for bogdan grad who was a contender series guy guy that i thought it was scrapped and fun, but didn't have the most robust game, didn't have a lot of ideas. I comped him, frankly, than Nate Landware.

I think that that was a pretty solid one. And that'll tell you kind of how he's going to fight, which, if you know anything about Mohamed Naimov, there's a little bit of Landware and Nymov's game as well. This is a little boy can get a little bit reckless in there. And so as a result, I think this price is just simply too big. This might well be a scrap. And I can't quite talk myself into a Bogdan Drive bet at play. plus 205, right?

But if that number moves at all, I am very, very likely to make some plays here. If that number gets to plus 250, I am absolutely a little bit interested in the plus 250 action there. And I think it has a chance maybe, like, you know, people just don't know bargain grant. So maybe the money comes in on NIMOV. Who's unknowled, a great run in the promotion right now.

So a pass for now, to me a total dog or pass situation, and maybe we'll be jumping on that dog as things go on. And that takes us to the prelims where I have a similar breakdown, frankly, as Siokion Coe takes on Obon Elliott. Elliot, minus 485 betting favorite to come back on Coe plus 370 for their welterweight contest. Coe, making his debut off contender series where he was also a day three guy in my prospect breakdown. Elliot 3 and O in the promotion was a contender series 2023 signy coming off the knockout win over Baza Hafez back in November. I would say Oban Elliott has exceeded my expectations for him in the promotion already. We'll see if Coe can do something

similar. He's a positional grappler. Oben Elliott's a wrestle boxer. You know, I think Elliot's a better striker and he's a good enough defensive grappler that I suspect he will carry the day. This is a huge price though, right? Like Oben Elliott, my 45. This is a total dogger pass situation and I'm passing because I don't have Coe winning this fight so it's hard for me

to get there but over and Elliot just I just don't feel you should be nearly a minus 500 betting favorite over a solid if unspectacular guy like Sokion Co. So pass for me but if you're feeling frisky

maybe take a look at Coe and see how you feel about that. We'll be going on a middleweight content Ishmael Nardiev taking on Jun Young Park, the Iron Turtle, baby, minus 180 betting favorite for the Iron Turtle. We come back on Nardiev plus 150. Nardiev made his return to the O.C. after a stint outside the promotion with the unanimous decision win over Bruno Silva. Park, meanwhile, 4 and 1 over his last 5 in the promotion coming up a split decision win over Brad Tavares. The one loss in there probably shouldn't have been, if we're being honest, there was a split decision loss to Andre

you need that I thought he won. So easily could be a world where the Iron Turtle is 5 and O and not having to fight sort of this dynamic, interesting guy like Nardiev while fighting back because this is just a tough matchup for him in that way. That being said, I do think Jun Yom Park should be the betting favorite here. We have seen Nardiev and how he loses. Sean Brady, Chance to Rock Entree, both just took him down a bunch. Obviously, that is the name of the Iron Turtle's game.

The man has the most apt nickname in the whole damn sport. Durable, methodical, and he's probably going to do the same Nardiev. I think the price is just spot on, though. If I was looking at sort of a prop, the over here maybe goes to decision. But just don't pass for me. We don't need to overload ourselves on Baku action, particularly when we've got this next fight, to talk about a pair of women's band-in-weight contest on the docket. First one up, a rematch.

Storia Zelensyakova taking on Melissa Mullins. Mullins minus 310 Zelensiocavo plus 2.30. Like I said, a rematch of an Ares women's bantamweight contest a couple of years back. Mullins, two and one in the promotion, TKO1 over Claudia Sigula in November, whereas Zelazniakovor won in one in the UFC submitted by Eileen Perez back in September. In their first encounter, Melissa Mullins, first round TKO win. pretty straightforward, got her down, pounded her out. That is the story with Zelazinojkova.

Decent enough striker, not a great ground game. I see no reason to believe that this changes in any way. I do know that, you know, I don't want to put anybody out there, say anything, speak out of turn. Talking to my buddy Billy Ward, his own climb that he's started, he is eyeing Melissa Mullins as a climb participant. I can't do it. Just not going to pull the trigger. And I'll be transparent. there was no climb this week. I was considering this, and there's one other fight that I was really, really strongly looking at.

Decided not to do it, but you could do worse than Melissa Mullins. Instead, I paired her up with Curtis Blades. Those two parlayed out for a minus 123 payout that I feel quite good about as far as just as, you know, a standard issue parlay. The other women's bad and weight fight, Arena Alex Siva taking on Claudia Segula, minus 265 for Alexiva Segula, plus 220. A battle of the two women that Melissa Mullins has beat in the UFC. Alex Siva, one in the promotion, coming off the loss to Mullins. By coming off the loss, that was in October of 2023. She has been out for some time. Segula lost UFC debut to Mullins back in November.

So, hard to feel good about this one. You know, Seguila can't really grapple all that well, and she's not a big enough hitter to be a huge stunt on defeat. So Alexeva can probably sort of use that background. get trips, get throws, get on top, win. But super long layoff, just can't feel at all confident about anything involved in this fight. Stone Cold Pass for me. Now I move to the saddest bout of the evening.

It's not. It's still a great fight. It's a flyweight contest. But Tegu Rimbikov taking on Azzit Maxim when he was supposed to be taken on Kiyoji Horanuchi. Tough, tough change of opponents for Tegu Lembekov, who is a minus 3.95 betting favorite to come back on Maxim. plus 310 to gear. Five and one in the UFC

coming off the unanimous decision went over Clayton Carpenter back in January that was supposed to get him that Kioji fight

as it one in one in the promotion a unanimous decision lost to Charles Johnson in February of 2012

of 2024 this is just going to be really fun fight man flyweight's great to gear and Beka

was great as at Maxon was pretty damn solid as well and so I am

honestly looking forward to this. I think you could take a splash on the over here, but it's not a flyweight under, so why would I bet a flyweight over? I do think we'll lend back off is probably just the better grappler. This is going to be grapple. And I think he is better served to sustain control positions win that kind of a battle. But mostly I understand this fight's going to be fun and the price is really big. So a stone cold pass for me. And that takes us to the first fight of the evening, a heavyweight contest, kicking things off with the big fellas.

as Muhammad Usman takes on Hamdi Abdel Wahhab. Usman, underdog, plus 140. Hamdi, the Big Ham, the Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler, did not meddle, but was in the Olympics representing Egypt. What year was a, it was a long time ago? 2016, maybe? I'd have to look that up. returning to the O.C.

After a long, long time. Oh, no, actually, I'm sorry, that's a lie. Because he fought in February. He won a split decision over Jamal Pogues after a long time off because of a two-year suspension for testing positive. So, if you're listening to home, there is a drug test parlay out there of Hamby and Rizvan. I won't be on it because I'm on Curtis Blades. And I'm not on this fight.

This fight is just going to be terrible heavyweights, but you look at the, it's not available everywhere. The alternate over here, over one and a half is a minus 435. If that price stays the same, strongly was considering it for the climb. If gone to my head, you made me pick one, that would be it. I do think that this fight goes real heavyweighty real fast. But ultimately, I couldn't do it for one major reason. We're 19 steps down, boys. you've got to be a little more precise with the footing.

And if I'm going to lose, I'd rather lose in a way that you all can enjoy my sadness and suffering, not the opening fight of a Baku card at noon on Saturday, where I transparently may not even be able to watch at this point in time. I have plans on Saturday. So I don't want to do that, saving it, already eyeing a couple of things at UFC 317 for Step 20 of the climb, and you guys can watch on the watch party if I end up, you know, collapsing, or if we may get two-thirds of the way down, which obviously is the hope.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, that's UFC Baku. 12 fights up, 12 fights cover. Frankly, a fight card I'm looking forward to, not just because of the start time, even though I may miss a little bit of it as a result of that. But a lot of good matchups, a lot of interesting things. UFC Atlanta, it was fun to attend. The card objectively wasn't that good to watch.

I'm sure you agree. Baku should be fun. And then it's International Fight Week. UFC 317. We'll have a guest trying to firm up some details on that, but we'll have a guest next week to break things down for International Fight Week. Until then, enjoy the fights this weekend. Thank you for tuning in to No-Bets Barred.

Love y'all.