Khalil Rountree Jr. outclasses Jamahal Hill at UFC Fight Night in Azerbaijan

Jamahal Hill was coming off back-to-back knockout losses and is now on a three-fight losing streak after a tentative performance against Khalil Rountree Jr., who earned a unanimous decision win Saturday in the headline bout of a UFC Fight Night card in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Rountree hadn’t fought since a fourth-round TKO loss to Alex Pereira in their title matchup at UFC 307 in October, but he returned to the cage looking sharp and implementing a tactical game plan over 25 minutes.

The pair exchanged leg kicks in a slow opening round, with Rountree landing the harder strikes overall. Rountree kept at it with heavy low kicks in the second and Hill’s right leg appeared compromised. 

With Hill favouring his legs and his movement impacted, Rountree briefly knocked Hill down with a counter left hook midway through the third round and again with a lead right hook late in the round.

Rountree continued to pick Hill apart in Round 4 while staying light on his feet and Hill’s corner tried to motivate their fighter ahead of the final round, insisting the one-time titleholder needed a finish to win.

That finish never happened and Rountree cruised to a decision win. One judge awarded Hill the opening round, but besides that, Rountree won every other round.

Hill hasn’t gotten his hand raised since becoming champion 2.5 years ago when he won a vacant title in January of 2023 by defeating Glover Teixeira at UFC 283, only to later vacate the belt before his first title defence after rupturing his Achilles.

Rountree entered the weekend ranked as the No. 7 contender at 205 pounds and should remain in the title picture moving forward. Hill was ranked No. 4 prior to this loss and will be expected to fall in the rankings when they are updated early next week.

Rafael Fiziev got back in the win column and held his spot in the lightweight rankings with a three-round victory over Ignacio Bahamondes in the co-main event.

Fiziev, 32, is the No. 11-ranked contender at 155 pounds but had lost his past three outings — two competitive Fight of the Night performances against Justin Gaethje, plus a technical knockout loss to Mateusz Gamrot due to a knee injury.

Bahamondes, 27, was on a three-fight finishing streak and had a significant height and reach advantage, but could not keep the momentum going.

Fiziev, who represents Azerbaijan and had the support of the crowd at Baku Crystal Hall, hadn’t gotten his hand raised since a 2022 knockout of former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.

Curtis Blaydes welcomed Rizvan Kuniev to the UFC and escaped with a split decision win.

Blaydes flicked out his jab, used feints and mixed in takedown attempts early, yet during his post-fight interview, he said he injured his left knee in the opening round, which affected his movement over the final 10 minutes of the slow-paced heavyweight matchup.

Kuniev was making his UFC debut and began having success with his boxing in the second round, however, Blaydes won the first and third rounds on two of the judges’ scorecards.

Blaydes, the No. 5-ranked heavyweight contender, called out No. 2-ranked contender Ciryl Gane for a matchup later this year.

Myktybek Orolbai used a wrestling-heavy attack against knockout artist Tofiq Musayev and forced a tap near the end of the first round thanks to a kimura lock.

Kyrgyzstan’s Orolbai rebounded from his split decision loss to Mateusz Rebecki in October, which was one of the best fights of 2024, to improve to 14-2-1 as a pro and 3-1 at the UFC level.

This matchup was originally scheduled to take place in the lightweight division but was changed to a 165-pound catchweight bout after Orolbai notified the organization during the week that he would have difficulty reaching the 155-pound lightweight limit.

Earlier on the main card, Nazim Sadykhov snapped a streak of 13 consecutive decisions dating back to last week’s Fight Night card in Atlanta with a second-round technical knockout of Nikolas Motta.

Sadykhov and Motta traded heavy punches in the pocket during a fan-friendly meeting in the lightweight division and Azerbaijan’s Sadykhov got the home crowd on its feet with the finishing sequence.

Featherweight Muhammad Naimov improved to 5-1 in the UFC with a unanimous decision win over Bogdan Grad. Naimov landed several spinning wheel kicks on Grad and more total strikes as Grad shot frequent takedown attempts.

All six preliminary card matchups went the distance, with South Korean fighters Jun-yong Park and Seok-hyun Ko among the winners.