Yesterday we learned of a big time heavyweight matchup that was getting added to UFC 302. Jailton Almeida and Alexander Volkov will go head-to-head on the first June PPV. Late last night, MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin reported a second ranked matchup that will go down on the June 1st PPV.
Top fifteen middleweights will battle it out as Roman Dolidze (12-3) will take on Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez (12-2). Starting with Roman Dolidze, this is a must win for him. After winning his first two fights in the octagon, Dolidze lost to Trevin Giles by decision.
Following that decision loss, he won four straight including a TKO win over Jack Hermansson. Those four wins earned him a fight with former title challenger Marvin Vettori. He lost that fight by decision. He then faced off against Nassourdine Imavov in a main event earlier this year and lost another decision. Now, he’s staring at a potential three-fight losing streak if he doesn’t get the job done at UFC 302.
UFC 302
While Dolidze needs a win to reverse his recent fortunes, Anthony Hernandez needs a win to continue climbing up the ranks at 185. Things started out pretty rough for Hernandez when he made his debut with the UFC. In his first three fights, he went just 1-2.
However, he then turned things around in a huge way. Starting with Rodolfo Vieira who he submitted in the second round. He’s now won five fights in a row and has finished four of the five opponents. Most recently, he submitted the dangerous Roman Kopylov at UFC 298.
Now, he gets a chance at Roman Dolidze. If Hernandez is able to pickup the win, you’ll see him jump into the top ten and he might only be a couple of wins away from middleweight title contention. A huge fight for both men.