Roman Dolidze vows to impress UFC brass, 'make them give me title fight'
"No matter how many fights they will give me, I will make them give me title fight," Dolidze told MMA Junkie on Monday. "I will just go through this."
Dolidze, No. 9 in the official middleweight rankings, will ride a three-fight winning streak into Saturday's UFC on ESPN 72 main event against No. 10 Anthony Hernandez at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas (ESPN, ESPN+). The fight marks Dolidze's second Fight Night headliner of the year after he most recently beat Marvin Vettori in their rematch in March and his third overall main event since last year.
Not that it makes much of a difference to Dolidze.
"Main event or not main event, it didn't change nothing for me," Dolidze said. "A little bit more preparation because of five rounds, but it's same fight."
And it comes at a time when the UFC middleweight division is being showcased in prime slots. On July 19, Paulo Costa looked impressive in his UFC 318 co-main event win over Roman Kopylov. One week later, Reinier de Ridder claimed a split decision win over former champion Robert Whittaker to vault up to No. 5 in the official rankings. Now it's Dolidze (15-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) and Hernandez (14-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC), who's on a seven-fight winning streak, taking center stage before the huge title fight between champion Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev next Saturday, Aug. 16 at UFC 319 in Chicago.
Dolidze recognizes the moment is a golden opportunity to assert himself into the title picture.
"Of course. 'Fluffy' is on a seven-fight win streak, and when we win we will take this part of him," Dolidze said. "I think after this fight I will be one fight, one step to a title fight. And I deserve it."
While Dolidze believes both he and Hernandez deserve higher-ranked opponents than each other, he's ultimately at peace with the challenge in front of him.
"I'm the type of person if I don't like something, I will say I don't agree," Dolidze said. "And if I don't agree and don't like what they're doing with me, I'll say OK, I'm leaving then. But if I am fighting, that's me saying I'm very thankful to the organization, and I'm just moving forward. That's all, nothing more."
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