Roman Dolidze will be looking to collect any appendage that is available to him when he enters the cage this weekend in a battle of ranked middleweight contenders. During an interview with Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, Dolidze covered multiple topics leading into his clash with Anthony 'Fluffy' Hernandez at UFC on ESPN 72 in the headlining bout for this Saturday's card.
Dolidze versus Hernandez will see a battle between the number nine ranked and number ten ranked middleweight contenders, respectively, in a clash that will meaningfully inform the divisional hierarchy for the coming months.
With this being Dolidze's third main event outing in the promotion, it seems like he is becoming more and more accustomed to five round fights as he continues to build himself up toward receiving a middleweight title shot someday. When touching upon his opponent Hernandez's second last outing against Michel Pereira last October that saw him notch some massive ground and pound numbers and after being asked if that effort impressed the Georgia native, Dolidze said,
"If you compare Michel's grappling and my grappling, it's different. I will not give him easy work on the ground and I will not just lay down there. I will attack submissions, I will attack legs—anything I want to take from him."
Roman Dolidze is set to be cornered by a dominant UFC champion here
Roman Dolidze will have an elite level presence in his corner for UFC Vegas 109 with this individual carving out a path that has seen many refer to that fighter in question as the GOAT in his given weight category. That combatant being referenced is UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili who has maintained a long held friendship with his fellow Georgian mixed martial artist.
The 37-year-old revealed this information during an interview with Fighters Only and put it out there to the MMA world that Dvalishvili will be making the walk with him at the UFC Apex this weekend. 'The Caucasian' has also touted fellow Georgian MMA standout Ilia Topuria as a friend and perhaps the UFC lightweight champion could also end up cornering Dolidze for a future fight.
Dolidze has been seen numerous times on Dvalishvili's YouTube channel and the two compatriots have been close to one another for years after both moved to the United States to level up their fighting careers.
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