The UFC has finalized a big time middleweight matchup for their second PPV in March. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was the first to report yesterday that former title challenger Marvin Vettori (18-5-1) will be taking on the rising Roman Dolidze (12-1) on March 18th.
The fight will take place at UFC 286 which will go down in London, England. Roman Dolidze came into the UFC undefeated and won his first two fights. Then, he had his only career slip up when he lost a decision to Trevin Giles. However, he’s been on a roll since.
He’s won four straight and that includes three straight finishes. He’s scored first round finishes over Phil Hawes and Kyle Daukaus, but his most impressive outing came in his last fight. He took on Jack Hermansson earlier this month and finished him in the second round. Now, he gets the toughest test of his UFC career.
Return of the UFC’s Italian Dream
Make no mistake about it, Marvin Vettori is one of the best middleweights in the world. However, he’s a slight step behind the very top tier guys which has been shown recently. Vettori is 1-2 in his last three fights with two lopsided defeats against Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker.
The Whittaker fight was the last time we saw Vettori at UFC Paris back in September. Prior to the loss to Whittaker, Vettori had won a five-round main event against Paulo Costa. Now, he’s looking for a reset against Dolidze and he’s looking to show that he’s still near the very top of the middleweight division.