“I would be interested in Chimaev.” Very polite people from the Caucasus will fight in the main fight of the UFC

Roman Dolidze represents Georgia in the UFC, is proud of his roots and leaves the cinema if swearing appears in the film. Nassurdin Imavov is originally from Dagestan, but lives in France and periodically drinks coffee and a croissant in a cafe.

Dolidze once combined combat and international trade; he now owns grocery stores in Batumi. Imavov lived in Marseille with his parents, then moved to a seven square meter apartment, but the fighting gave him a good life in Paris.

Dolidze trained with two-weight UFC champion Jon Jones, and Imavov trained with Francis Ngannou and Cyril Gan. Imavov and Dolidze will now cross paths in the UFC main event in Las Vegas this weekend. Nassurdin Imavov has 12 wins, 4 losses, he is 28 years old; Roman Dolidze has 12 wins, 2 losses and is 35 years old.

– Can you explain why you lost to Marvin Vettori in your last fight? (question to Roman Dolidze)

— Everything went well in preparation. I think I won this fight. I got a little angry…like my friend said, I wanted to punch a hole in his head with an overhand forehand, but I didn’t think of anything else. I didn’t use any of my technical skills. I could have worked differently, I could have fought. My mistake. I thought I was winning, that I was doing enough to win, and I didn’t change a thing. With Vettori, I would like a rematch. You need to approach it correctly, suppress your emotions. I’m an emotional fighter, and if you look, all my fights are like that, but on some level you have to take the emotions out.

— In the fight with Khadis Ibragimov, your second was Alexey Kudin. He has now been released from prison in Belarus. Did you communicate with him after his release?

– Yes of course. He and I always stayed in touch. Even when he was not free, we communicated with his family. Kudin helped me a lot. Then the pandemic started, I was supposed to fly to America, but it turned out Europe was a red zone and they sent me back. They were not allowed to travel from Germany to the United States. The only country where there were no restrictions against Covid-19 was Belarus. Naturally, I went and tried to find someone to train with. Alexey Kudin responded and helped me a lot. I did well in that fight, so I’m still very grateful to him and we communicate.

— Then you defeated Khadis Ibragimov, and he, leaving the UFC with four defeats, began to win even more. Have you followed his performance?

– No, I’m not looking. Basically, I don’t watch much of the other fights. I’m glad everything is going well for him.

Imavov “about the confrontation with the Caucasian”

— After the fight with Khadis Ibragimov, Roman said in an interview: “It’s a shame that the confrontation with the Caucasian caused such negativity.” Do you think fans will react negatively to your confrontation?

– I think not. I think the public is starting to get used to the fact that we all have to fight against each other in the UFC. And I think there won’t be a big problem here.

— Do Roman’s fans ever write you anything in Russian? Because Georgians and Dagestanis speak the same language.

– No, they don’t write anything special. They can write in Russian, but more often these are supportive words.

— Do you know anything about Roman Dolidze as a person? Did you watch his interview?

– No, I know him more as a fighter. We crossed paths several times. He’s a nice and good guy. We said hello, but nothing more. I know he seemed to be a latecomer to MMA.

Dolidze about Chimaev

— Merab Dvalishvili, your comrade and compatriot, said on a podcast that you caught Khamzat Chimaev in the leg and he was very angry about it. You have always been opposed to what happened in a fight becoming public. Are you unhappy that this has become known?

– Yes, I don’t think this is good and correct, I myself am not a supporter of such conversations. But Merab considered it necessary to talk about it, and Khamzat did not react in any way, which means everything is fine.

– You wanted to fight with Khamzat Chimaev.

— When I asked for this fight, Khamzat could no longer make the 77 kg weight category, he had to move up to 84 kg. So this would be very interesting for him, because he could immediately fight with a top 10 fighter. A good start if that’s what he wanted. But he didn’t react at all. I met him later in Thailand. Nothing unusual happened.

— Would you be interested in fighting Chimaev now?

— It would be interesting with Chimaev, because he is known, people know him and for me that would be a plus. Now, for example, I don’t understand why he got to the top when he beat a fighter in the 77 kg category (Kamaru Usman). Why is this happening all of a sudden? This, in principle, says a lot about the importance of the rating, to what extent it actually reflects the situation. And I didn’t like his words in a video one bit. There was one episode, they showed him pictures of fighters, and he just said “smash-smash,” and there was my picture. I didn’t like this language and these conversations. I don’t think they are correct. Plus, we are both from the same region. You must be careful what you say, think before expressing your opinion. Now I have a completely different attitude to the question of competition with Chimaev.

Who did Nassurdin Imavov call to his camp?

— Roman Dolidze has good leg locks, have you called anyone to prepare for them?

– Yes, a person came to our room who is good at this. And I, in principle, prepared specifically for Roman. Boxers and those who are seriously involved in boxing also came to our gym. The Bouafia brothers helped us (Soheb Bouafia is a member of the French boxing team), and we fought.

— You are often advised to go and train in Dagestan. What’s stopping you from doing that?

“Actually, there are just fights very often, and that’s why I try to do my training where I’m used to. And so, I’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time. If I had to choose a gym, I would go to Dagfighter. This is where I would spend my training camp.

— Not so long ago there was a fight for the belt in your division, and the current champion Sean Strickland was once your opponent. How do you like this fight?

– It’s not a bad fight, but it seemed to me that Sean Strickland had won it, that he was better. Generally, if we fought him again, I would just raise my hand and attack him in the first round. What I did in the fifth round of our fight, it seems to me that I understood too late how to act against him.

When Dolidze was forced to give up in training

—You have a very powerful offensive grapple. Do you remember the last time you were caught?

– It’s hard to remember. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, maybe I’m not training with guys at the level right now so they can catch up. But there were such cases. Once I got caught up in something very strange, I didn’t expect it. The man was lying on his back, I was on top doing a side hold and the guy did a very interesting choke. But after learning what to expect, I no longer made those mistakes. It was two years ago.

— Could you count how many techniques you know and have practiced at least once in fights and training?

– No, of course, I didn’t try. The fact is that, for example, even the technique that I had with Hermansson, “calf slicer” (leg pain, traditionally called “canary” in sambo), but the fact is that I made the technique from from such a position, in which I never found myself, but I ended up with him. You can use it in different ways and the result will be completely different. It is therefore impossible to calculate.

— You were a football goalkeeper. When was the last time you wore goalkeeper gloves?

— Literally three weeks ago I put it on, the UFC cameramen asked me to do it, they were filming a report. I liked it because I hadn’t worn them for ten years before, and it was interesting to remember the skills.

— Did you know that Shara Bullet in your category became the best goalkeeper in the Dagestan zone?

— I haven’t heard of it. Interesting!

Imavov – about the French language and Georgian cuisine

— Do you now think more often in French or Russian?

– This probably happens both ways. Mostly in Russian, but I can also think of something in French.

— When you were learning the language, was there a word in French that made you laugh?

“There was such a word in Arabic, but I can’t tell you now, it’s so… specific.”

— Roman Dolidze started as a football goalkeeper. Did you know and have you ever played football or worn football shoes?

— No, I didn’t wear football shoes, although I tried to play football. I haven’t heard such details about Roman.

— Do you like Georgian cuisine?

– Yes, yes, of course, a lot. Besides, I know where there is a Georgian restaurant in France. I haven’t been there yet, but I definitely plan to go and eat khinkali.

Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.