Roman Dolidze got his revenge with a punishing performance to beat Marvin Vettori in their rematch in the UFC Vegas 104 main event.
Their previous three-round encounter in 2023 ended with Vettori’s hand raised, but with five rounds to work, Dolidze showed off his improvements by showcasing superior output and better shots landed throughout. While there were definitely some close rounds, Dolidze kept finishing frames with stronger effort and that assuredly played a part in how the judges saw the fight.
Ultimately, all three judges gave Dolidze the fight with identical 49-46 scorecards as he picks up a third straight win and gets one back on Vettori as well.
“I want to say a big thanks to Marvin that he agreed to fight me,” Dolidze said afterwards. “It was a big and important test for me. This fight was very important for me, first of all mentally to show I can go five rounds hard.
“First fight, I was going hard just because of my aggression but now I was ready, I was controlling my aggression. That’s a very important key for me. I can go hard in the first round but I can go hard for five rounds and still keep going.”
When the fight started it looked eerily similar to the first matchup with Vettori and Dolidze resigning themselves to one strike at a time without much happening beyond the boxing exchanges. The middleweights were almost a mirror image of each other, making the rounds tough to score.
The striking exchanges were largely even through the first two rounds, but that’s also when referee Herb Dean had to get involved to warn Dolidze not to continue fighting with his fingers extended. Like clockwork, a second later Dolidze eye poked Vettori, which caused a brief pause in the action.
Dean once again warned Dolidze, but opted not to deduct a point for the foul as the fight continued.
In the third round, Vettori finally delivered a big shot as he clubbed Dolidze with a hard right hand that momentarily wobbled the Georgian middleweight. Vettori surged forward with a barrage of shots, but Dolidze did a good job avoiding damage and allowing himself the time he needed to recover.
That forced Dolidze to get more aggressive as he started backing Vettori down and throwing bigger combinations with multiple punches in succession. While Vettori smiled through the exchanges, Dolidze kept chipping away at him with better output and more strikes landed.
Dolidze consistently connected with a hard right hand and Vettori realized the fight might be slipping away from him so he tried to push the pace while launching more strikes. It was a strong start to the final five minutes for Vettori, but once again he faded as time passed and that allowed Dolidze to walk him down.
With time ticking away to the final horn, Dolidze launched a huge head kick that reverberated off Vettori’s arms and then a knee up the middle that nearly took his head off as well. Dolidze continued throwing shots until the fight ended and his ability to close strong proved to be the different from the first bout to Saturday’s rematch.
The performance got Dolidze the win while a dejected Vettori walked away in protest, clearly upset he didn’t get the nod.
Now Dolidze looks towards the future with hopes that he’ll draw a higher ranked opponent next time and he actually has his sights set on a couple of former champions.
“I deserve a top 5 fight,” Dolidze shouted. “There are two realistic fights for me. It’s [Robert] Whittaker or [Israel] Adesanya, let’s go, just give me a date, nothing more.”
As for Vettori, he falls to 1-3 in his past four fights with this latest loss coming after a 21-month layoff as the one-time middleweight title challenger almost assuredly tumbles down the rankings with this latest setback.
