Marvin Vettori vs. Roman Dolidze booked for UFC 286 in London
A key middleweight fight has been added to UFC 286 in London, England.
According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, the UFC is close to finalizing a middleweight bout between Marvin Vettori and Roman Dolidze at UFC 286 at the O2 Arena on March 18. Both sides have verbally agreed to the matchup with contracts set to be finalized soon. The main event of the card has not been announced, although it has been rumored that Leon Edwards will defend his strap against Kamaru Usman.
Marvin Vettori (18-6-1) is coming off a decision loss to Robert Whittaker at UFC Paris. Prior to that, he beat Paulo Costa by decision – at light heavyweight – to return to the win column after losing a decision to Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title. Before the loss to Adesanya for the belt, the Italian was riding a five-fight win streak with wins over Kevin Holland, Jack Hermansson, Karl Roberson, Andrew Sanchez, and Cezar Ferreria.
Vettori is currently ranked fourth at middleweight and in the UFC, he’s 8-4-1 with his other two losses to Adesanya and Antonio Carlos Junior.
Roman Dolidze (12-1) picked up the biggest win of his career back at UFC Orlando earlier this month as he scored a second-round TKO over Jack Hermansson. The 34-year-old took the fight on short notice after knocking out Kyle Daukaus and Phil Hawes while winning a lackluster decision over Laureano Staropoli.
Dolidze is 6-1 in the UFC with his lone loss coming by decision to Trevin Giles. The current eighth-ranked middleweight started out his UFC career 2-0 with a TKO win over Khadis Ibragimov and John Allan by decision. He was signed by the UFC in 2019 but did not make his debut until 2020 as he was suspended for a year as he tested positive for clomiphene and its metabolites M1 and M2, as well as a long-term metabolite of dehydrochlormethyltestosterone.
Vettori vs. Dolidze is the first fight reported for UFC 286.
