Marvin Vettori isn’t too impressed by Roman Dolidze‘s resume.
‘He Pulls Off Fights Where He’s Not Meant To Pull Off’
The former UFC title challenger is set to defend his #4 ranking against Dolidze on the main card of UFC 286 this Saturday. In the lead-up to the fight in London, Vettori claims the Georgian probably shouldn’t have won a few fights he’s had in the past.
“No,” Vettori told ESPN, when asked if Dolidze is a top-tier contender. “He’s definitely very dangerous in some positions, he’s a sniper like that. If he gets into… one of his positions that he really likes, he’ll go after it, like really hard. He’s one of those guys that like, he pulls off fights where he’s not meant to pull off sometimes.
“So, I definitely gotta address that and be careful there. But, with my experience and with my knowledge and the level that I have on fundamentals that I have in general, I’m really confident that I can deal with that. Shut him off in all, all the areas that he’s good at. If I stay disciplined, there’s not much that he can do because I am the better fighter, I think overall. But yeah, he’s definitely not to be underestimated.”
This criticism from Vettori comes after Dolidze’s comeback win in his latest outing. Dolidze lost the opening round against fellow contender Jack Hermansson and was also losing in the second round before he ultimately trapped Hermansson with a calf-slicer to get the TKO finish.
‘Another Ball Game’
Vettori vows to not repeat Hermansson’s mistakes and also of Dolidze’s other fallen foes. ‘The Italian Dream’ believes Dolidze will learn there is levels in the middleweight division, come fight night.
“He still pulls off fights that he shouldn’t have pulled off,” Vettori continued. “There’s always a reason why, and he never really like stepped up to the caliber of like my level, of this kind like top five, top three guys. It is still another ball game.
Even though you have that ability of pulling off fights that you should have been pulling off, you’re not gonna get there with me, I can see [it] coming, I’ll stop it. My level of fundamentals is too high for me to get into those positions. You gotta go through so many layers for me to make those kind of mistakes. It’s not gonna happen.”
