The action started cautiously in a very tense, tactical opening round, but it was Rountree who had more success in the opening five minutes, landing the heavier strikes and scoring notably with some nasty calf kicks.
Rountree continued to punish Hill’s lead leg in Round 2, with one kick in particular hobbling the former champion and leaving his leg with a significant swelling. Hill, meanwhile, needed to close the distance, but found it tricky to get into the pocket to make his boxing skills count.
Rountree continued to score in Round 3 and, as Hill looked to close the distance and let his hands go, Rountree responded with a perfectly-imed left hook that briefly dropped the former champion. All the while, Rountree continued to feed Hill’s right leg with a steady diet of chopping calf kicks. Then, in the closing seconds of the round, Rountree loaded up and dropped Hill again, this time with a big right hook.
The fourth round saw Rountree force Hill to touch down after another big shot, with Hill’s low hands and inability to match Rountree’s speed proving a major problem. And in the fifth, despite Hill pushing forward more, he was unable to land anything of substance as Rountree cruised through to a dominant decision victory.
The scorecards reflected Rountree’s technical striking superiority, as he won with scores of 49-46, 50-45, 50-45.
The night featured a trio of Azerbaijani MMA stars, and two of them, Rafael Fiziev and Nazim Sadykhov, produced crowd-pleasing performances to claim memorable victories on home soil.
Fiziev showcased his striking mastery, plus a little wrestling smarts, as he shut out the dangerous Chilean Ignacio Bahamondes in the co-main event. And Sadykhov took everything Nikolas Motta could throw at him – which, as it turned out, was a LOT – and came firing back in response to eventually stop the Brazilian with strikes in the second round of a fight that might just challenge for Fight of the Year honours by the end of 2025.
It wasn’t such a happy occasion for debuting Baku native Tofiq Musayev, however. The former Rizin FF lightweight grand prix champion arrived in the Octagon with an impressive resume, but he had no answer to the relentless Myktbek Orolbai, who submitted him with a Kimura late in the first round.
Also on the main card, fifth-ranked heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes sustained a knee injury early in his bout with debuting former PFL heavyweight Rizvan Kuniev, but grittily fought on to win a split-decision verdict after three tough rounds.
And in the opening main card bout of the night, Muhammad Naimov defeated hard-hitting Bogdan Grad via unanimous decision.
UFC Baku: Official results
MAIN CARD
- Khalil Rountree def. Jamahal Hill via unanimous decision (49-46, 50-45, 50-45)
- Rafael Fiziev def. Ignacio Bahamondes via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Curtis Blaydes def. Rizvan Kuniev via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
- Myktbek Orolbai def. Tofiq Musayev via submission (Kimura) – Round 1, 4:35
- Nazim Sadykhov def. Nikolas Motta via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:17
- Muhammad Naimov def. Bogdan Grad via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Seok-hyun Ko def. Oban Elliott via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Jun-yong Park def. Ismail Naurdiev via unanimous decision (29-26, 29-26, 29-25)
- Daria Zheleznyakova def. Melissa Mullins via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
- Klaudia Sygula deff. Irina Alekseeva via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Tagir Ulanbekov def. Azat Maksum via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
- Mohammed Usman def. Hamdy Abdelwahab via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
