{"id":53110,"date":"2025-08-08T14:43:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T14:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53110\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T14:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T14:43:06","slug":"roman-dolidze-explains-how-mma-drama-led-to-ufc-vegas-109-headliner-with-anthony-hernandez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53110\/","title":{"rendered":"Roman Dolidze explains how \u2018MMA drama\u2019 led to UFC Vegas 109 headliner with Anthony Hernandez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roman Dolidze<\/a> didn\u2019t expect Anthony Hernandez<\/a> to be his next opponent, but he certainly feels ready for it.<\/p>\n

Dolidze faces Hernandez in the main event of UFC Vegas 109 this Saturday at the UFC APEX. Following his victory over Marvin Vettori<\/a> at UFC Vegas 104<\/a> in March, Dolidze called for a fight with former champion Robert Whittaker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Dolidze, the UFC was interested in making that fight happen, but instead, Whittaker was booked to headline UFC Abu Dhabi<\/a> in July, where he lost a split decision to Reinier de Ridder<\/a>. Dolidze ended up getting \u201cFluffy\u201d instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo reaction, but my thoughts are like, MMA drama, you know?,\u201d Dolidze told MMA Fighting<\/a>. \u201cAnd it\u2019s funny for me because we have, probably, different understanding of what\u2019s going on. Some guys are second Conor McGregors, [trying] to say like loud stuff, but sometimes, I don\u2019t understand them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they tell me that I will fight him. [For] two months, they were telling me that I will fight Whittaker. And after they announced that Whittaker is fighting de Ridder, they gave me Fluffy. It happened like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hernandez has won his past seven bouts and proven to be a tough opponent, with a cardio-heavy style that provides problems to all of his opponents. The 31-year-old recently earned a decision win over Brendan Allen<\/a> at UFC Seattle<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

After picking up wins over Kevin Holland<\/a>, and past title challengers Vettori and Anthony Smith<\/a>, Dolidze was a little surprised Hernandez was the name on the other side of the contract. To be fair, Dolidze feels his opponent may have deserved better as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said that I deserve a better opponent, that this is not a fight what I wanted \u2014 the fight with Fluffy,\u201d Dolidze said. \u201cBut who cares? I will still fight. I will still win, and I will just make them give me fight that I deserve. …<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that UFC is, first of all, business. UFC is, first of all, a show and they have their own goals and their own way how to achieve what they wanna do. And now, it\u2019s a situation when a lot of guys are up and coming, and a lot of good fighters[are] there and [it\u2019s] a little bit [of a] mess. A lot of things going on there. And we both, I think, even my opponent Fluffy, we both deserve higher-ranked opponents, but in the end, we are fighting each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think everything is fair. If you are still winning, they will have no they have no other option to give you title [shot]. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The middleweight division is in a fascinating place right now. De Ridder\u2019s big win puts him in a potential bigger spot next, Dricus du Plessis<\/a> is getting set to defend his title against Khamzat Chimaev<\/a> at UFC 319<\/a> later this month, and Nassourdine Imavov<\/a> faces Caio Borralho<\/a> in a huge main event bout at UFC Paris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With a win over Hernandez, Dolidze feels a title eliminator should be next.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnthony is different,\u201d Dolidze explained. \u201cAnthony is interesting fighter. I think he\u2019s not [great] in [any one thing]. He\u2019s not super striker, or he\u2019s not super grappler, or he\u2019s not super wrestler, but he\u2019s super cardio guy, like Mario, you know? Like, he\u2019s always like going.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019s a good fighter and very interesting. Like I said, he\u2019s not super grappler, but he could make you tired, and he\u2019s a good grappler when you\u2019re tired and you can\u2019t do nothing. He has wins over good grapplers, high-level grapplers. He was losing fight, but when he makes them tired, he\u2019s doing whatever he want to do. That\u2019s why it\u2019s an interesting fight, and he\u2019s a good fighter, I think so. …<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be an interesting fight,\u201d Dolidze continues. \u201cI don\u2019t know what he will offer me, but for anything, I\u2019m ready, especially with his good side. He likes to go on the ground, let\u2019s go on the ground. Let\u2019s see [who is] better.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you\u2019re talking where I will be after this fight, after this win, I think he has a seven-fight win streak. That\u2019s good. And when I will win over him, will put me higher [in the rankings], and I think I will be one step until title fight. One more fight, and title shot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roman Dolidze didn\u2019t expect Anthony Hernandez to be his next opponent, but he certainly feels ready for it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":{"0":"post-53110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}