The UFC’s second trip to Baku, Azerbaijan has its headliner, and it comes as no surprise that Rafael Fiziev is involved.
The Azerbaijani is set to take on Manuel Torres in the main event of UFC Baku on June 27, 2026. Promotion officials announced the news on Tuesday.
The event takes place inside Azerbaijan’s National Gymnastics Arena.
Fiziev (13-5) defeated Ignacio Bahamondes as part of the UFC’s debut in Baku a year ago, then followed that up with a loss to Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 325 in Sydney, Australia. The 33-year old is 1-4 in his last five fights, though that also includes a pair of losses to Justin Gaethje, the current UFC interim lightweight champion.
Torres (17-3) is 5-1 in the UFC to date, and coming off back-to-back TKO victories over Grant Dawson and Drew Dober. His lone loss in the company came against Bahamondes, the last man Fiziev beat.
UFC officials have also confirmed a previously reported middleweight fight between Shara Bullet and Michel Pereira. UFC Baku on June 27 currently features the following reported match-ups:
- Rafael Fiziev vs. Manuel Torres
- Michał Oleksiejczuk vs. Abusupiyan Magomedov
- Sharabutdin Magomedov vs. Michel Pereira
- Brunno Ferreira vs. Ikram Aliskerov
- Nursulton Ruziboev vs. Andrey Pulyaev
- Marvin Vettori vs. Ismail Naurdiev
- Asu Almabayev vs. Charles Johnson
- Julius Walker vs. Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev
- Bekzat Almakhan vs. Jean Matsumoto