Ignacio Bahamondes looks to snap his losing skid as he returns to welterweight against a dangerous striker.

Ignacio Bahamondes will search for a change in fortunes as he moves back up to 170lbs in search of a win. Having lost his last two outings,  Bahamondes will return to welterweight for the first time since his Contender Series fight in 2020.

Since gaining a contract, the Chilean has gone 6-4 in the UFC, notching four performance of the night bonuses and a fight of the night winning effort in a loss last time out. Having never been finished, he’ll have to use all of his skills to avoid the heavy power of his opponent at UFC Noche, Muslim Salikhov.

Ignacio Bahamondes Looking to Snap Skid

Bahamondes has suffered back-to-back losses for the first time in his career in his past two fights. It’s worth noting that he took a big step up in competition when suffering the first of these two losses.

He was coming off the back of three straight wins, each of which earned him a performance of the night bonus and each of which came in the first round. Arguably most impressive of these was his most recent victory over Jalin Turner, where he submitted him with a triangle choke.

IGNACIO BAHAMONDES SUBMITS JALIN TURNER IN ROUND ONE 🔥 #UFC313 pic.twitter.com/9ZpqramkgZ

— ESPN (@espn) March 9, 2025

 

He was then matched with Rafael Fiziev in Fiziev’s home country of Azerbaijan. He was well beaten in this one and offered very little in the way of a plan B after being drastically outworked. He had no answer for Fiziev’s superior striking and when ‘Ataman’ mixed in the takedowns, it was all she wrote for Bahamondes.

Next came an interesting fight match-up with Tofiq Musayev, who was in search of his first promotional win. In round two, Bahamondes scored a big knockdown but failed to secure a takedown due to a fence grab. He would go on to lose a split decision.

Salikhov Stands in the Way

Standing across from Ignacio Bahamondes at UFC Noche will be 42-year-old Muslim Salikhov. The ‘King of Kung Fu’ has his three-fight winning run snapped last time out at the hands of Uros Medic in a quick, 1:03 knockout.

The Russian is never going to trouble the elites of the division, but if Bahamondes can get a well-respected name on his record like Salikhov, especially on his return to 170lbs, it’ll put him in good stead going forward.