Georgian UFC fighter Roman Dolidze told how he arrived from Batumi to Las Vegas for the fight against Anthony Smith at the UFC 303 tournament.
Dolidze debuted in the UFC as a light heavyweight in 2020, but later moved up to the middleweight division. Currently, the 35-year-old Georgian fighter is on a two-game losing streak (against Marvin Vetori and Nassurdin Imavov). At UFC 303, Dolidze replaced Carlos Ulberg, having learned of the fight a week before the tournament.
— You entered the fight with Anthony Smith, the news about it appeared on June 21. When did you learn that you could fight this fight?
– The morning. I didn’t even think twice about it because I have weight problems, a lot of people don’t accept to fight with me. And I already came here to Vegas, trained for two months, my opponents withdrew, proposed to others, they also did not agree, in the end I returned home. Now, I immediately accepted when this opportunity presented itself with Smith. I was in Batumi, minding my own business, but I went on a diet, because there were still offers for my weight category. And the fight with Smith is an opportunity that I want to take advantage of. And in this weight category, and moreover with such an opponent, he is eminent, number ten in the ranking of his weight.
— How did you get from Batumi to Las Vegas?
— In general, the route is usually like this: from Batumi we have to fly to Istanbul, from Istanbul we fly somewhere like Houston or Chicago. And only then from there, Las Vegas. It takes about 19 to 27 hours. I think this time it was 22 hours.
– You were offered a fight. How long afterward did you stay at the airport?
“If the fight is agreed, and even if you still haven’t signed the contract, they (UFC people) are already working on issuing the ticket. This time the tickets were quickly made, but this nuance was a little funny: I was flying the next day, I sent the ticket I was interested in to the UFC, it was scheduled for 10:35 pm. And they also sent me a ticket for 10:35 am, but I didn’t look at AM or PM (time before lunch or after lunch. – “”). I just saw 10:35 am and thought it was 10:35 am. But it turns out that it is a morning flight. I arrived at the airport, there was a flight, but I was not there. I immediately bought tickets to Istanbul myself, because I understood that if I stayed in Batumi, I would not be able to fly there anymore, there were no flights in the right direction. So it was necessary to fly to Istanbul and look for another option. As a result, I flew to Istanbul and there, in my opinion, I had to wait about six hours. Then I flew to the United States, and then they started checking something at the border and they also missed the flight to Las Vegas. I had to wait for the next one. In general, there were such stories, ”Dolidze told .
Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
More sports news in our telegram channel .
Source : MatchTV
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
