The UFC has been on fire over the past few months with amazing cards stacked week after week. Now, they are travelling to Baku, Azerbaijan, where the card will be headlined by Light Heavyweight contenders Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree.
Along with a great main event, this card is stacked with talent. Today, I will break down my 3 favorite bets for this weekend’s fight card. Let’s get into it!
This is a very interesting fight in the heavyweight division. Blaydes has been a staple of the HW division for years now but is 1-2 in his last 3 with both losses being by TKO. He had an impressive win over Jailton Almeida between those losses, so we will see how he fares with UFC newcomer, Rizvan Kuniev.
Kuniev is a Dagestani who has fought twice on Dana White’s Contender series and won both. He is a very skilled fighter, as shown by getting a top 5 fight in his debut. This fight should be fun with both guys being pretty high-level wrestlers. Usually, that leads to a fight on the feet, and I think Blaydes would have the advantage. He isn’t the greatest striker in the division, but he has a ton of power, and his takedown threats usually help to open up shots.
I’m going to take the UFC vet in this one. He is only 1 year older but has faced higher-level competition throughout his career. I love the double chance on this one, with Blaydes to win by Decision or KO/TKO.
MY PICK: Curtis Blaydes by Decision or KO/TKO +120
It has been a rough go for Rafael Fiziev, losing all of his last 3 fights. Two of those fights were wars against Justin Gathje, and the other ended in a horrible knee injury that kept him out nearly 2 years.
Now, he is looking to get back on track against an extremely tough Ignacio Bahamondes. The Chilean is on an impressive 3-fight win streak and has finished all of his opponents in that stretch.
Fiziev has the home-field advantage in this fight, hailing from Azerbaijan, and I think that will be a great boost for him, especially with the skid he is on. Fiziev is a dangerous striker who has won 3 of his 6 UFC fights by KO. Bahamondes is also dangerous and holds an 83% finish rate in his UFC career thus far.
Bahamondes is lanky and fights with high volume and distance control; however, I think Fiziev is going to be able to score some big punches in this one. He is a Muay Thai specialist, and I think he is going to be able to figure out the distance in this one.
MY PICK: Rafael Fiziev +110
This is going to be a fun one! Both of these fighters are extremely explosive and very dangerous strikers. Both are former championship contenders who faced tough losses to Alex Pereira.
Now they will face off to stay at the top of the conversation for a rematch. Hill has lost 2 straight coming into this one, and both were by TKO. Rountree was on an impressive 5-fight win streak, with 4 finishes, before he got beat up by Pereira.
This fight will almost certainly be fireworks. Both of these guys are brutal KO artists and are fighting to stay relevant at the 205-pound class. I think Rountree is going to get the better of Hill in this one. While he is a much smaller fighter, I think he is much more technical than Hill.
Hill has been known to get sloppy, as seen in his back-to-back TKO losses. Rountree is also very effective out of the clinch with knees and elbows. If he can close the distance and avoid getting his lights turned off, I think he can do damage against Hill.
MY PICK: Khalil Rountree -110