London, U.K. – When things get personal in the cage it takes a fight to another level whether or not the feeling is mutual or even justified but UFC middleweight Marvin Vettori is grabbing onto that feeling at UFC 286.
“This fight it’s personal for me in a sense that like I’ve never had two losses in a row, and it’s not going to be the case (this Saturday). I can’t wait to go out and put on a great performance,” Vettori told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
Vettori (18-6-1) mentioned that the fight was personal to him and he said it’s about not wanting to have two consecutive losses. However, it turns out that Vettori and his opponent Roman Dolidze have trained together before and that makes it a personal fight for ‘The Italian Dream’.
“Even though it is a bit personal with Roman too in a sense because we actually trained together before and stuff. We have some good friends in common and he didn’t think twice of accepting the fight. Of course if you accept the fight and they come back to me and they tell me you accepted the fight then I’m not going to shy away from a fight definitely not,” Vettori said.
“I wouldn’t say that we were like friends, but you know at the same time we’ve been around each other a couple times. At the end of the day we’re not here to make friends. I totally get it. I can’t wait to do it to be honest.”
Training together for a bit at Kings MMA, and a mutual friendship with UFC featherweight Giga Chikadze makes this fight even more personal for Vettori.
“They went well for me (training sessions with Dolidze) I believe you know,” said Vettori.
“He’s in my division and I’ll go out and smash him.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Marvin Vettori above. He takes on Roman Dolidze at UFC 286 on Saturday night in London at The O2 Arena.
