Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted May 25, 2025 Paid Members Posted May 25, 2025 (edited) The Octagon lands in Azerbaijan for the first time with this lot… ESPN MAIN CARD Jamahal Hill vs Khalil Rountree Rafael Fiziev vs Ignacio Bahamondes Curtis Blaydes vs Rizvan Kuniev Myktybek Orolbai vs Tofiq Musayev Nazim Sadykhov vs Nikolas Motta Muhammad Naimov vs Bogdan Grad ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Seok Hyeon Ko vs Oban Elliott Jun Yong Park vs Ismail Naurdiev Dariya Zhelezniakova vs Melissa Mullins Irina Alekseeva vs Klaudia Sygula Tagir Ulanbekov vs Azat Maksum Mohammed Usman vs Hamdy Abdelwahab Not the deepest card but the main event’s alright, co-main is tremendous and there are one or two other highlights. Couple of fights dragging it down but, on the whole, it’s not bad. Doesn’t hurt that it’s gonna be an 8pm main card kickoff for us either. Always welcome. And a proper crowd to boot! Yeah, it’ll do. Jamahal Hill vs Khalil Rountree headlines. Not in love with it but not too bad for a Light Heavyweight fight. This is actually the third attempt to get this fight on. They were originally scheduled to meet at UFC 303 last June, which was the card that was supposed to be headlined by McGregor vs Chandler and the whole thing turned into a shambles with fights falling out left and right. A ‘tainted supplement’ took Rountree out of that one. Then they were booked to headline the Kansas City card in April but Hill dropped out with a leg injury. Third time lucky? Jamahal Hill’s seemed uncharacteristically quiet lately. You couldn’t shut the bastard up for months after that memetastic loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 300. He was bellyaching for ages about that and had all kinds of silly excuses for why he got chinned. Acting like the ref somehow screwed him or some bollocks. Then there was that time he approached Pereira in some gym and started talking shite, then when Pereira threw some gloves at him and said ‘let’s spar’, Hill vanished like a fart in the wind. Genuinely pathetic behaviour from a former UFC champion. He finally came back and fought Jiri Prochazka at UFC 311 in January…and got chinned again! Hilarious. It was a pretty entertaining fight from what I remember but Jiri proper walloped him in the last round. Wasn’t really anything Hill could even use as an excuse again this time so I guess he just had to eat that one. Maybe that’s why he’s seemed less vocal on YouTube and Twitter and stuff since. This is how we last saw Khalil Rountree. Christ. He got absolutely butchered by Pereira in their title fight at UFC 307 back in October. There was a lot of criticism about Rountree even getting the title shot at the time. Think he was #7 ranked or something and it was clear Magomed Ankalaev was the most deserving challenger. But Pereira vs Rountree definitely seemed like the more exciting fight on paper and it was just that. Rountree took a beating but he certainly had his moments and it took Pereira until the fourth round to put him away. In fairness, that was clearly partly Pereira taking a more cautious approach early on and waiting for his opportunities. But Rountree definitely showed toughness and heart that we never really knew he had before that fight. He was on a winning streak prior to that loss and it was one of those losses where, oddly, he seemed to come out of it with his stock kind of raised. But he took a proper arse kicking and, at 35 years old, you wonder what that’s taken out of him. That’s your main event then. I’m very rarely bothered about 205 fights these days, which is a shame considering how amazing that division was when I first became a fan. But this is alright, to be fair. I think there’s enough aggression and power from Rountree and enough aggression and sloppiness from Hill that it shouldn’t be dull. Someone’s gonna land something big or someone’s gonna walk onto something nasty. It’s what they do. Bit of a weird one in that they’re both still highly ranked - Hill’s at #4 and Rountree’s at #7 as I type - but it doesn’t feel like either is really ‘in the mix’ at this point. Hill’s coming off back-to-back knockout losses and Rountree just got obliterated in his last fight. Both have work to do. But fuck knows? 205’s so shallow now it’s almost like Heavyweight, where the division’s so short on contenders that, if you have any kind of name, you’re always just one big KO win away from another title shot. Rafael Fiziev vs Ignacio Bahamondes sounds like an absolute belter to me, easy choice as ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** on this card. Had no idea this was even signed until looking up the card to do this post. Fantastic piece of matchmaking. Can’t go wrong really in the Lightweight division. Even fights like this which don’t have title shot implications or anything like that, in terms of just making fun fights, you’d have to be a complete idiot as a matchmaker if you can’t make gold with the list of guys in that 155 pool of talent. Interested to see how Fiziev looks here. Doesn’t seem too long ago he was being talked about as the next big thing at 155, now he’s coming off three straight losses. Tough game. To be fair, the first Gaethje loss in 2023 was an incredible fight where the loss shouldn’t have harmed him too much. But then in his next fight he had that loss via knee injury to Gamrot, which was a disaster and took him out of action for a good 18 months or so. He finally returned in March this year, jumping in on just a couple of weeks notice for the rematch with Gaethje. And lost on points again. So there are kind of some asterisks next to his last couple of losses. A knee injury loss, a long layoff, then a short notice fight. Far from ideal circumstances. In theory the ring rust and cobwebs should be off now and he’ll be coming into this fight with a full training camp. So this should give us a better idea of where’s he’s at now. In contrast to Fiziev’s recent 0-3 run, Chile’s Bahamondes has gone 3-0 in his last few fights. Three first round finishes and got three POTN bonuses for his efforts. Stopped Christos Giagos with a headkick, knocked out Manuel Torres at the Sphere, then subbed Jalin Turner and sent him into retirement. Now, as you see there, he’s cosying up to that Stephanie Vaquer sort from WWE. He’s living the life at the moment. He’s a guy I’ve been bigging up on here pretty much since his debut. 17-5 overall now, on the rise but not currently ranked. Fiziev’s at #11 so this is Bahamondes’ ticket into that Top 15 or even Top 10 depending on how things shake out. Really looking forward to this fight. Shame it’s not five rounds really. They might not need the extra rounds but just in case. Should be a banger. Either Fiziev gets himself back on track or Bahamondes scores his biggest win to date and gets himself in the rankings. Both will be wanting to make a statement for different reasons. And style-wise, I just can’t see how this can’t be awesome to watch. Curtis Blaydes vs Rizvan Kuniev then. This is another fight that’s been scheduled a few times only to keep getting cancelled. They were all set to fight on the Seattle card in February but it got moved to UFC 313 in March for some reason. Then on the day of the fight, Blaydes pulled out with an illness. It was then briefly scheduled for the Burns vs Morales card at the Apex in May but got moved to this one. So this is the FOURTH try this year to get this fight on. Let’s hope it happens this time, we’ve all got lives to live. We haven’t seen Blaydes since he got iced in a minute by Tom Aspinall in Manchester. That was last July. And Kuniev? Fuck knows with this bloke. He’s Russian, 33 years old, 12-2-1-1 and he’s coming off a first round TKO win on DWCS last August. All good right? Well, not really. He fought in PFL before that and in 2023 he beat Renan Ferreira (the massive fucker Francis Ngannou thumped in his PFL debut in October) but it got overturned to a No Contest because Kuniev got popped with a bunch of PEDs in his system. Lovely. Hopefully Blaydes clobbers him. Not even because of the PEDs, just feel bad for him going from being a contender to the matchmakers trying to use him as a stepping stone for some roidy Russian DWCS dollop. Blaydes seems like a sound guy as well so I’d like to see him get back on track. Myktybek Orolbai vs Tofiq Musayev has my attention. Orolbai’s fairly quickly became a must see fighter for me since his UFC debut in late 2023. He’s from Kyrgyzstan, 27 years old with a record of 13-2-1 and 11 inside the distance. Seem to recall his debut was as a late replacement for someone and I remember looking Orolbai up and seeing him absolutely starching some fucker in LFA. I was intrigued to see him in the UFC and he didn’t disappoint, subbing Uros Medic with a brutal neck crank his first night in. Then he beat Elves Brener at UFC 301 in Brazil in a fun scrap. Then at UFC 308 in October… He lost a split decision but him and Mateusz Rebecki went to war in a bloody dogfight that really should’ve been talked about more at the time. Think it only got a bit lost in the shuffle because it was on the same card as Topuria ironing out Holloway and Khamzat rearranging Whittaker’s jaw. It was some fight though. Legitimately one of my favourites from 2024. I’m glad they both took a bit of a break after that one. Hopefully Orolbai’s good to go now. As fun as those kind of fights are for us to watch, you don’t wanna be in too many of them. Musayev makes his Octagon debut here. He’s Azerbaijani so he’s gonna be the crowd favourite. He’s 35 years old and 22-5 with 20 finishes, 18 by knockout. Don’t recall seeing him fight but I thought his name looked familiar. Turns out he’s fought a lot in Bellator and Rizin. Beat Patricky Pitbull in 2019, lost to Alexandr Shabliy in 2023. He’s coming into this fight off a couple of KO wins but hasn’t fought in almost two years now. Yeah I’m into this. Always gonna tune in for Orolbai’s fights regardless but sounds like Musayev could be a great opponent for him. Nazim Sadykhov vs Nikolas Motta is alright. Not buzzing for it or anything but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen of Sadykhov so far. He’s 30 years old, 10-1-1 and trains out of Ray Longo’s gym in New York but he’s actually Azerbaijani born so makes sense putting him on this card. He went to a draw with Slava Claus in a cracking fight at MSG in 2023. Then in his last fight in February, he forced a doctor stoppage in his win over Ismael Bonfim. Fun fighter to watch. Motta’s been a bit all over the place. He’s 15-5-0-1 and coming off a couple of wins but he’d suffered a nasty KO loss and had a No Contest before that. Scrappy guy though so should make for a watchable fight with Sadykhov, although I expect Motta will be mostly playing the role of punchbag here. Muhammad Naimov vs Bogdan Grad might be worth a look. Although I’m not a fan of Naimov in general. Started with him being a dirty shite in the Nathaniel Wood fight a couple of years ago with the incessant fouls, groin strikes, glove grabbing etc. And he won a stinker against Kaan Ofli last time out as I recall as well. I’m interested to see Grad again though so I’ll give it a chance. Grad’s Austrian, 29 years old and 15-2 with 12 finishes. He’s coming into this fight on a four fight winning streak and made his UFC debut in February, scoring a TKO win over Lucas Alexander. I remember him looking pretty good in that one. Seok Hyeon Ko vs Oban Elliott. Right fuck about getting to this. Originally both were supposed to be on the Blanchfield vs Barber card at the Apex at the end of May. Ko was scheduled to fight Billy Goff, Elliott was booked against Ramiz Brahimaj. Both Ko and Elliott got scratched from the card due to Visa issues and now they’re fighting each other here. Worked out for the best in the end because now they’re at least fighting in front of a crowd instead of the that glorified, tarted up shed in Vegas. South Korean Ko is nicknamed ‘The Korean Tyson’, he’s 31 years old and has a record of 11-2 with 6 knockouts. Never seen him before but, like most debuting fighters these days, he’s coming off DWCS. Wales’ Elliott is 27 years old and 12-2 with 6 finishes. He’s on an eight fight winning streak and is coming into this fight off a KO win over Bassil Hafez on the MSG card in November. Jun Yong Park vs Ismail Naurdiev is OK as filler. Been a bit disappointed with Park’s recent fights. I remember him having some fun scraps earlier in his UFC career and I became a bit of a fan of the old ‘Iron Turtle’ but his last couple of fights have been really flat. He lost a dull split decision to Andre Muniz in late 2023, then won a dull split decision against Brad Tavares in late 2024. Had that Tavares fight as my ‘one to watch’ on here as well. Naurdiev’s got a record of 24-7 and coming off a successful return to the UFC, beating Bruno Silva in October. His previous UFC run in 2019/20 didn’t go great and, to be honest, his form outside the UFC has been patchy so I was a bit surprised they brought him back. We’ll see how this goes but my hopes aren’t high really. Dariya Zhelezniakova vs Melissa Mullins 2. Yep, a big rematch! Apparently they fought on an Ares FC card back in November 2022 and Mullins won via first round TKO… There was some confusion because the round ended at the same time as the stoppage but it went down as a TKO for Mullins at 4:59 of the first round. Whatever. Zhelezniakova’s 29 years old with a 9-2 record and since that loss to Mullins, she’s gone 2-1. She got submitted in a round by Ailin Perez last time out on the Paris card in September. Right there that tells you she’s going absolutely nowhere because Perez is shite. Mullins is from Coventry, not too far from my neck of the woods. She’s 33 and has a 7-1 record with 4 by KO/TKO. She stopped Klaudia Sygula in her last fight in November. As nothing a fight as that was, I’m pretty sure Mullins landed the first ever legal 12-6 elbows during her finishing flurry in that one. Irina Alekseeva vs Klaudia Sygula. Ahh who cares? Apex shite. Alekseeva’s Russian, 34 years old and 5-2 in MMA. She’s nicknamed ‘Russian Ronda’, apparently because of her Judo background. She’s not had the best start in the UFC though. She debuted in 2023, won by first round kneebar but overshadowed it by missing weight badly and seemingly not even giving a shite. She then lost to Melissa Mullins in late 2023 and hasn’t been seen since. Sygula’s Polish, 26 years old and 6-2. She made her UFC debut in November, also losing to Mullins. Nowt to see here. Tagir Ulanbekov vs Azat Maksum is a solid fight in the Flyweight division. This was supposed to be Kyoji Horiguchi’s big return to the UFC though. He was meant to fight Ulanbekov here but Horiguchi dropped out. A blow to this card but I wasn’t upset about it, to be honest. I wasn’t really feeling it as Horiguchi’s first fight back. Hopefully he can re-debut in a better fight later in the year. This is decent enough though. I vaguely remember Maksum looking pretty good in a losing effort against Charles Johnson in his last fight. Think that’s all I’ve seen of Maksum though and that was February last year so it’s a bit hazy. He’s from Kazakhstan, 30 years old and has a 15-1 record. Ulanbekov’s a funny one. Never rated him too highly but he’s shown some promise at times. Problem is his career has been so stop/start and he’s had a bunch of layoffs. He’s just not been active enough to make any real progress. He’s on a three fight streak now but those three fights have taken him since 2022 to do. He just beat Clayton Carpenter in January, so if he makes it to the cage for this one, that’ll actually be a quick turnaround for him. Good little fight if it happens. Mohammed Usman vs Hamdy Abdelwahab is almost certainly gonna be rotten. Probably best off finding something else to do for 15 minutes. Go and have a shit or something. Can’t be arsed with Mo Usman, the shite Usman brother. He’s one of those fighters from the Cheick Kongo mould where if titles were won on physical appearance, he’d be your champ. There’s nothing beyond that though. All show, no go. He’s 36 now, 10-4 and coming off back-to-back losses to Mick Parkin and Thomas Petersen. Abdelwahab’s Egyptian, 32 years old and has a record of 6-0-0-1 with 5 finishes. Don’t know what to make of him. Thought he might have some potential when he first made his UFC debut in 2022, then he had the USADA suspension, came back this year and went to a split decision with fucking Jamal Pogues. Yeah, I’ll be skipping this one. Myktybek Orolbai fight week! Edited June 20, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted May 25, 2025 Paid Members Posted May 25, 2025 Unless that Pereira fight completely ruined Rountree, I see him putting abit of a whooping on Hill here. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 20, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted June 20, 2025 Only just remembered this is on UK friendly time. Actually looks like it could be a pretty fun watch as well looking at the card again just now. Look at these lovely start times… Result for Oban Elliott here as well landing on this card. If you remember he was meant to be on that completely skippable Apex card with the doomed Blanchfield vs Barber main event that never happened. Elliott’s gone from fighting on the Apex prelims at 2am or something UK time to now fighting in Azerbaijan at probably 7:30pm UK time. Be nice for Elliott’s family, and the Welsh in general, to get to watch him fight live in prime time hours. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 20, 2025 Paid Members Posted June 20, 2025 Im deterimined to watch this, ive been slacking and really like the look of this. Few really interesting debuts on here. ...I may even attempt to do it live. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 21, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted June 21, 2025 Standing with my boy Khalil today… Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 21, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted June 21, 2025 Just over an hour until this one gets underway… ??? Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 22, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted June 22, 2025 Watched almost all of this live in the end due to the nice start time. Well, I tuned in after the Mo Usman vs Abdelwahab curtain jerker but I doubt I missed much there. Happy to see Khalil Rountree get the win in the main event but it wasn’t good to watch. Never expected a slow paced snoozer out of this but there we are. It was satisfying seeing Rountree completely school him the whole fight though. If I have to say anything positive about Hill, he showed toughness here to survive the 25 minutes. Taking all those leg kicks was brutal. He’s gonna be feeling that for a while. Got dropped with punches two or three times as well. Which made his reaction when the decision was announced even funnier… What’s he on? ? Why was he shocked? He can’t think he did well. Even as delusional as we know Hill is, he must’ve felt it and known that this was complete one way traffic. He can’t possibly think he actually won, I’m guessing he was more reacting to the couple of 50-45 scorecards. But he can’t have expected it to be much closer, surely? There’s no argument for giving him any more than maybe one round. And I don’t even think he won one. I’d have maybe felt a bit sorry for him if he wasn’t still being a twat after the fight. What was that about, going up to Rountree and making it awkward post-fight? He had 25 minutes to do something to Rountree and he couldn’t, but then starts chatting shit when the fight’s over? Wouldn’t mind seeing Rountree vs Jiri next unless Jiri’s getting the title shot. Fiziev vs Bahamondes wasn’t a bad fight by any means, it was decent but nowhere near as exciting as I thought it might be. Nice to Fiziev get a win though. Chuffed to see Blaydes get back in the win column as well, although I wasn’t a fan of the fight. Orolbai looked good getting the nasty Kimura finish. He needed a decisive and relatively damage free win like that coming off the Rebecki war last time. What else? Oh that Ko lad looked really sharp, shame to see Oban Elliott get derailed but Ko looks legit. But if you missed this card live and you’re gonna watch anything, make it the Sadykhov vs Motta fight. You won’t regret it. What a barmy scrap. I’ve found Sadykhov really fun to watch in his previous fights so it’s no surprise this was enjoyable. But I thought it’d just be a bit of a showcase for him in front of his home crowd. If this fight was made with that in mind though, Motta didn’t get the memo. He looked like an absolute terror in the first round. Sadykhov did really well to weather that early storm. The finish was a beauty as well. Honestly, there’s been a couple of belters this year like Merab vs Umar and Maddalena vs Belal but I don’t think I’ve been entertained by any fight so far this year more than I was this one. Actually might be my FOTY so far. Onto 317. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.