Marvin Vettori will be back in action this summer. |
Getty/UFC
The UFC
Baku lineup continues to take shape.
The Las Vegas-based promotion on Tuesday confirmed a handful of
matchups for the event, including a pair of intriguing middleweight
tilts: Marvin
Vettori vs. Ismail
Naurdiev and Abusupiyan
Magomedov vs. Michal
Oleksiejczuk.
Other announced pairings, some of which have been previously
reported include: Nazim
Sadykhov vs. Matheus
Camilo at lightweight; Asu
Almabayev vs. Charles
Johnson at flyweight and Nursulton
Ruziboev vs. Andrey
Pulyaev at middleweight.
UFC Baku takes place at National Gymnastics Arena in Baku,
Azerbaijan, on June 27 and is headlined by a lightweight clash
pitting Rafael
Fiziev against Manuel
Torres. The card will air in its entirety on Paramount+.
Middleweight Mania
A middleweight title challenger in 2021, Vettori will look to snap
a four-bout losing streak when he squares off against Naurdiev.
“The Italian Dream” went 0-3 in 2025 alone, dropping unanimous
decisions to the likes of Roman
Dolidze, Brendan
Allen and Brunno
Ferreira.
Naurdiev, who is on his second
UFC stint, has won two of his last three Octagon appearances.
Most recently, the 29-year-old Austrian scored a first-round
knockout of Ryan Loder
at UFC Qatar this past November.
Magomedov saw a three-bout winning streak come to an end in his
last outing, when he suffered a second-round submission defeat to
Joe
Pyfer at UFC 320 this past October. Prior to that, “Abus” had
earned successive triumphs against Warlley
Alves, Ferreira and Michel
Pereira.
Oleksiejczuk, meanwhile, has won three consecutive UFC starts. Most
recently, the Pole outpointed Marc-Andre
Barriault at UFC Fight Night 266 on Feb. 7. His current run
also includes first-round stoppages of Gerald
Meerschaert and Sedriques
Dumas.