Salt Lake City — Fans may not know what to expect in the middleweight fight between Roman Dolidze and Kevin Holland at UFC 307 this Saturday.
Dolidze (13-3) himself doesn’t seem entirely sure, for that matter.
“He’s an [unpredictable] guy, I’m [unpredictable]. But who knows, maybe this will be my first submission in UFC,” Dolidze exclaimed during Wednesday’s UFC 307 media day, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press. “That’s a little bit strange, I’m a grappler and I’ve never used this. Who knows. But you know me, maybe I will just go and fight.”
Dolidze is Georgian, and his home country is on a roll right now. Georgian fighters have hit heights in multiple promotions, and last month, Merab Dvalishvili became the second UFC champ from the small European nation, nestled in the Caucasus region.
“Of course it’s a big achievement. When I first started MMA it was in Ukraine, because in Georgia we didn’t have MMA,” noted Dolidze. “Even now, I think amateur MMA is bigger in Ukraine than in Georgia. But if you’re speaking about professional athletes, Georgia is on another level now.”
The rise of Georgian MMA has led to athletes around the world wanting to train there, but Dolidze admits that the options at home still lack.
“I don’t want to sound bad, but let me say the truth. We don’t train there. And only I live in Georgia. It’s a little bit harder for me, because if I would stay here in America, it would be easier to always be in shape, and always train, and have good sparring partners.”
Ilia [Topuria], Merab [Dvalishvili], Guram [Kuteladze], Giga [Chikadze], the other Georgian fighters in the UFC, “they train in other countries,” continued Dolidze. “It’s much easier for them and I understand why they do this. For professional athletes, it would probably be smartest and best. But I choose a different way, and I like being in Georgia because I like my culture, I like my life there.”
As to why such a small country, lacking the infrastructure of an MMA-crazed nation like Brazil, for example, has found so much success in the sport, Roman Dolidze suggested it had to do with the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Probably the time when we were raised there, we’re almost all a similar age, it was tough times. It was times when Soviet Union collapsed, and everything got destroyed in Georgia. No economy, nothing worked, and there were food problems, everything was a problem. Even electricity — sometimes we didn’t have at all, then sometimes a couple hours, and even I remember sometimes they were giving electricity for a couple hours, when there was news on TV, and some Brazilian series. I remember that very well.”
The lack of training in Georgia may soon change, however. Dolidze noted that, with five UFC fighters, two champions, and a population of about 3.5 million, “I see changes. Big changes. A lot of gyms are opening.”
Watch the full UFC 307 media day appearance by Roman Dolidze above.
