Manuel Torres' Path to Main Event Status in Baku

That’s all it took Manuel Torres to work his way into his first main event. In total, “El Loco” finished all but one of his 17 professional wins, and only one of his 20 total fights went the distance. Torres made his way to the promotion via Dana White’s Contender Series when he scored a—you guessed it—first-round knockout in October 2021.

From there, Torres’ climb served as a sort of contradiction. He fought just four times in his first four years on the roster, but the results were thrilling. A TKO win over Frank Camacho opened his account. Thirteen months later, he landed a bomb of an elbow on Nikolas Motta to notch his second Octagon win. His third bout came eight months later in Mexico City, when he showed his grappling and submitted Chris Duncan inside of two minutes.

Those three victories earned Torres three Performance Bonuses and a date at UFC’s celebration of Mexican fighting heritage, UFC 306 at Sphere. However, he also faltered against his toughest test to that point when Ignacio Bahamondes finished Torres four minutes into their bout.

To Torres’ credit, he made the Bahamondes result more of a speed bump rather than a pitfall. In 2025, he scored a pair of wins over battle-tested lightweight veterans to reestablish himself as a real threat in the division. First came a battle with the 155-pound knockout king Drew Dober in Mexico City. A little more than 90 seconds into their duel, Torres got the American out of there and returned to his bonus-winning form.

A little more than eight months later came a chance against Grant Dawson, someone who has spent the better part of the last few years floating in and out of the rankings and presumably someone who would push Torres into deep waters. Torres was a man possessed, though, getting another knockout win before the midway point of the opening frame to notch his fifth win in the Octagon.

The all-action man out of Chihuahua is don’t-blink television each time he steps into the Octagon. Even as he heads into his first 5-round assignment against Rafael Fiziev in Baku, one can expect the same approach from the 31-year-old. Fiziev is regarded as one of the most technically proficient strikers in the division, but the chaos Torres creates throws a wrench in the approach of the most cerebral of fighters.

Should Torres play spoiler in front of a partisan crowd, he sets himself up for a date with one of the various iconic lightweight men in the top-15 and distinguishes himself as one of Mexico’s best chances at another title contender.

Don't miss a moment of UFC Fight Night: Fiziev vs Torres, live from National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, Azerbaijan on June 27, 2026. This event airs at a special time: prelims begin at 9am ET/6am PT, followed by the main card at 12pm ET/9am PT. Watch the entire event live on Paramount+.