The UFC’s return to Baku brings an interesting rematch that most fans probably forgot about. UFC Baku takes place on June 21, 2025 at Baku Crystal Hall, featuring a women’s bantamweight clash between Russia’s Daria Zheleznyakova and England’s Melissa Mullins. This fight carries some history between these two women.<\/p>
Back in 2022, before either fighter made it to the UFC, Mullins defeated Zheleznyakova by first-round ground and pound. Now they meet again on the big stage, but both fighters have traveled different paths to get here. Zheleznyakova made a solid UFC<\/a> debut by outpointing Montserrat Rendon. Mullins has been more active in the octagon, picking up wins over Klaudia Sygula and Irina Alekseeva, though she has also shown some inconsistency with weight cuts and took a brutal head kick loss to Nora Cornolle.<\/p> This bantamweight rematch presents two fighters heading in opposite directions. Zheleznyakova stands tall at 5’9″ with a 68-inch reach, making her a lengthy striker who likes to use her range. Her stats show decent striking accuracy at 38% but excellent defensive numbers with 79% strike defense. The Russian fighter averages 3.29 significant strikes per minute and has perfect takedown accuracy, though she only attempts 0.80 takedowns per fight. Her ground game remains her biggest question mark after the Perez submission.<\/p>Darya Zheleznyakova vs Melissa Mullins Preview<\/h2>