Roman Dolidze continues his rise in the UFC this Saturday in the UFC Vegas 104 Main Event while he takes on Marvin Vettori.
After an extremely close collision between Roman Dolidze and Marvin Vettori on UFC 286 in 2023, which was scored controversially, the promotion corresponded to the two middle weights, this time for a main event.
Since their first meeting in which Vettori received the decision victory, he has only fought once and loses against a colleague, Jared Cannonier. 'The Caucasian', on the other hand, fought three times, with his most recent fight against Kevin Holland on UFC 307.
The fight ended in controversy after Holland's Corner pulled him out of the fight after he seemed to be a rib injury.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Roman Dolidze gave up the professional football career to strive for MMA
Although he is number 11 in the middleweight division, Dolidze is still extremely young in his MMA career and only started training when he was 28 years old.
The Georgian grew up with football and even took a professional part before he strived for a career in struggling after viewing old Pride events.
“I was a football player, a keeper, and I liked where I went, I loved football, but I didn't reach the levels I wanted to be,” Dolidze started to explain in an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow.
“I looked at pride, I didn't know that pride did not exist anymore, I still thought people were fought there … It was something new and interesting for me. I found out that Fedor Emilianenko combat Sambo had trained and I found a Sambo Gym fight near my university.
“I thought it would be as proud because I had no understanding of what it was. When I started training, it wasn't the same, it wasn't as proud … I didn't like it, “Dolidze went on.
Fortunately the Georgian became friends with someone in the gym who trained Jiu-Jitsu, which led to 'the Caucasian' starting Jiu-Jitsu training. After just a few months of training, he won different championships and built a name for himself.
A few years later a new MMA promotion called WWFC came to Ukraine and was looking for prospects from the area to compete.
“If someone would ask if I wanted to fight, I would say,” No, these guys hit each other in the face, I don't want that, “but they offered me a good contract that was interesting for me. I agreed with the contract and I was 28 years old when I fought my first pro -fight,” Dolidze continued.
Dolidze then started making a name for himself and is now close to UFC title.
Fortunately for the MMA Fanbase, Dolidze took the risk and continued his MMA career in WWFC before gaining a UFC contract on 5-0.
The 185LB division is currently in a bit of a transitional period, with people like Israel Adesanya, Sean Strickland and Robert Whittaker who all come out of losses, still arranged in the top five.
And with that, the 36-year-old is extremely close to the position of the middleweight and a victory over the former title challenge, Vettori, in the UFC Vegas 104 main event, he can only be one step away.
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