This coming Saturday, Roman Dolidze is set to take on Marvin Vettori, but the narrative surrounding their scheduled fight, is that they’ve previously trained together.
The Italian, Vettori, believes the fight with the Georgian contender ‘is a little bit personal’ due to them having trained before, with Vettori questioning why Dolidze accepted to fight him.
Dolidze though ‘doesn’t understand’ why Vettori feels that is the case: “I don’t understand him, I don’t understand what that means. What does he mean personal, we are professional athletes, I want to fight the best guys. I know him but I know a lot of people here.
“I respect him, as a fighter and person, but I don’t know him like a brother to say things like that. For me it’s another fight. He also accepted the fight, he could’ve said no I don’t want to fight.” Dolidze said.
Despite all of the animosity, Dolidze has stated that with a win rank four Vettori, he will ask for a title shot. “I will ask for a title shot, I think that makes sense because all of these guys have fought eachother. Why not, it’s new blood.” he said.
With there being other top contenders in the middleweight division also wanting a title shot for their next fight, Dolidze believes that due to Vettori’s rank, if he beats him, he leapfrogs everyone else.
“I think Marvin is higher ranked, he’s a more known fighter, that can put me closer to the title.” he said.
Watch the entire Media Day Scrum with Roman Dolidze above. He takes on Marvin Vettori this Saturday at UFC 286 in the o2 Arena.
