LONDON – [autotag]Marvin Vettori[/autotag] was surprised former training partner [autotag]Roman Dolidze[/autotag] was quick to accept a fight against him.
Vettori (18-5-1 MMA, 8-4-1 UFC) meets Dolidze (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) in a middleweight bout on Saturday’s UFC 286 main card opener at The O2 in London. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and early prelims on ESPN+.
Vettori will look to rebound from his loss to ex-champion Robert Whittaker this past September, but that’s not the only thing on his mind.
“This fight is personal for me in a sense that I’ve never had two losses in a row, and this is not going to be the case (this week),” Vettori said at Wednesday’s UFC 286 media day. “I can’t wait to go out and put on a performance.
“It is a bit personal with Roman, too, in a sense because we actually trained together before and stuff and we have some good friends in common. He didn’t think twice when accepting the fight.”
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The two trained together at Kings MMA, and Vettori implied he used to get the better of Dolidze during their sessions.
“They went well for me, I believe, but I’m the first to say that training ain’t a fight,” Vettori said. “But still, for sure they went well.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 286.