UFC Baku Preview Show: Is this do-or-die for Rafael Fiziev against Manuel Torres? artwork

UFC Baku Preview Show: Is this do-or-die for Rafael Fiziev against Manuel Torres?

MMA Fighting

June 26, 2026

Guess who's Baku? Baku again. On Saturday, the UFC returns to Azerbaijan for the second UFC Baku, this one headlined by a matchup between Rafael Fiziev and Manuel Torres with heavy implications at 155 pounds.
Speakers: Alexander K. Lee, Jed Meshew
**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
When I got a new car, I thought my insurance premium would increase and empty my bank account, like if Fetween won the lottery.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:06)
I've invested most of my winnings in chicken tenders because they're bomb. But bro, I bought a house and it's sick, bro. I'm thinking the floor is gonna be all trampoline, bro. With the helipad on the roof, the contractor said it's structurally unsound, but they're just being babies.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:21)
But switching to Geico saved me hundreds, so my bank account is safe.

**Alexander K. Lee** (0:25)
It feels good to save some hard-earned cash.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:27)
It feels good to Geico.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:31)
This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

**Jed Meshew** (1:10)
Mixed martial arts. Mixed martial arts.

**SPEAKER_7** (1:14)
How do we lack on martial arts?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:17)
In Baku...

**Jed Meshew** (1:22)
That is right, ladies and gentlemen. Hello, my name is Jed Meshew.
I am a writer, video person, whatever you want at mmafighting.com. You probably know that because you're on our YouTube channel, or you're listening to us after the fact, because we are here to talk about the return to Azerbaijan and UFC Baku headlines by lightweight contestant, Rafael Fiziev, I'm sorry, Rafael Fiziev. I like the soft R. Rafael Fiziev and Manuel Torres and featuring a few other very strong fights. And you know, it's our last fight week before UFC 329 We've got an off week next week for July 4th here in the United States. So we'll have a bit of a breather. And this weekend, we've got some stuff to celebrate. There's a good UFC, there's PFL, there's boxing, if you're into that. But we are going to focus on UFC Baku. And so I turned to my co-host for the evening, the king in the north, the nicest guy in MMA media, the hardest working guy in MMA media, not named Jose Youngs, and speaking of course, Alexander K. Lee. AK, how you doing? And I have a very important question for you, AK.
Guess who's back? Baku Baku, you know? I fucked that up, I apologize. But also, why is my-

**Alexander K. Lee** (2:43)
The music went up, the music spiked.

**Jed Meshew** (2:46)
I got thrown off because the music came to like heavily when I was doing something.

**Alexander K. Lee** (2:50)
I didn't even hear your hilarious joke.

**Jed Meshew** (2:51)
I was trying to make a Backstreet Boys joke.

**Alexander K. Lee** (2:55)
Oh, wow, that went-

**Jed Meshew** (2:56)
I failed pretty miserably. So, you know, it's all going to be winners, AK.

**Alexander K. Lee** (3:01)
I had a whole terrible intro prepared too, and you ruined it. I was going to be like, hi, and just not going to say anything else. I was going to be like- I was like, what's going to happen? It was like for Spice. I know it's, you know, a shout out to everyone. A lot of our regular viewers, I know you guys are out there, but you're right. What if it's like someone randomly seeing us for the first time? And I was just like, hello.

**Jed Meshew** (3:19)
Howdy.

**Alexander K. Lee** (3:20)
And just awkward silence. Like, what kind of impression would that leave?

**Jed Meshew** (3:23)
Not the best one. I'm not sure if UFC Baku is going to leave the best impression, but I think it's going to be pretty decent. I really like this card, AK, and we're just going to dive right into it. You can see over my shoulder, I guess I'll single screen me for a second. I have given this, AK, six fights above contender series, which is strong.

**Alexander K. Lee** (3:45)
Controversial.

**Jed Meshew** (3:47)
Controversial, but it's a strong grading because we got, are there 12 or 13 fights this weekend?

**Alexander K. Lee** (3:52)
We got 12 fights, the 13 fights, excuse me, 13 fights.

**Jed Meshew** (3:55)
So almost half the fights are above contender series. I'm, I, there are six facts being given. I'm given a lot of facts for, for UFC Baku.
And maybe that's a little high, but like I said, I really like this card. I personally will not be working the card. I will actually be on a plane when the event starts heading to Kansas city to watch World Cup games, but I'm going to pull it up, watch it for the rest of us. You know, if you're on the West coast, that's pretty tough, right? Like you're going to have to get up very early if you're on the East coast. It's great. You wake up, you got fights right at your doorstep. AK, why don't we go here?

74 more minutes of transcript below

Feed this to your agent

Try it now — copy, paste, done:

curl -H "x-api-key: pt_demo" \
  https://spoken.md/transcripts/1000651996090

Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any agent that makes HTTP calls.

From $0.10 per transcript. No subscription. Credits never expire.

Using your own key:

curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_KEY" \
  https://spoken.md/transcripts/1000774386015