UFC Baku: Fiziev vs. Torres picks and predictions
See who we think will win this weekend at the Baku Crystal Hall.
This weekend, the UFC makes its second trip to Azerbaijan and collects its second massive wad of cash for doing so. UFC Baku 2 is headlined by Azerbaijan’s own Rafael Fiziev. He’s taking on Mexican KO artist Manuel Torres. That’s a pretty great fight and not just for the partisan crowd in Baku.
This card might look a little light on first glance, but I’m not mad at it. There’s a lot of fighters here who are booked just to appease the locals. However, the fight game has developed a lot in this part of the world, so I’m not complaining about seeing Nazim Sadykhov, Asu Almabayev, Nursulton Ruziboev and Bekzat Almakhan.
We’ve also got Shara Magomedov vs. Michel Pereira as the co-main. That could be pretty fun.
The card starts at 9 AM ET on Saturday, which I hate (since it means I’ll be live blogging it from 9-5 when I could be with my family). But at least I like the fights on offer.
As always, we’ve poured over the bouts and made our picks. Last week we did OK, but all of us were too in love with The Gooch, I’m afraid. To be fair, Kyoji Horiguchi was winning that fight until Manel Kape pulled out KO punch out of his back pocket.
I remain in the top position after last week and that’s thanks to me hitting my lock pick, again. I went with Navajo Stirling. Scroll down to see who we are all picking this week.
Leader board
UFC Baku picks and predictions
Rafael Fiziev (-105) vs. Manuel Torres (-115)
Picking Fiziev: Stephie, William, Miguel, Kristen, Blaine
Picking Torres: Tim, Nate
Picking Over 1.5 rounds: Stephie, Miguel, Kristen, Tim
Picking Under 1.5 rounds: William, Blaine, Nate