Roman Dolidze, who is ranked number nine, will face Anthony Hernandez, who is ranked number ten, in the main event of this weekend. Each of them is a strong win streak. Dolidze has recently knocked off former title challenger Marvin Vettori and won his last three fights.
Meanwhile, Hernandez last defeated Brendan Allen and won his last seven fights. Can “Fluffy” secure a similar victory against Dolidze?
Although Hernandez isn’t exactly the most athletically gifted middleweight, he makes use of his skills to his advantage, making him an intriguing fighter. At his best, he loves to drag his foes into gutter wars on the ground and tends to outlast them with excellent cardio, toughness, and an underrated positional awareness.
‘Fluffy’ is not the best striker on his feet and also leaves himself open to getting hit at times. However, he is extremely resilient and has only been stopped once in his UFC career, when he lost to Kevin Holland.
Dolidze will be an interesting foe for him even though the Georgian is a naturally gifted athlete, and that has meant that he has been able to develop seriously nasty knockout power to go along with his excellent grappling skills.
In addition to his terrifying victories over Phil Hawes and Jack Hermansson, he also outlanded Vettori in terms of volume and demonstrated that his power could last for five rounds. Essentially, his fight should come down to whether Hernandez can work Dolidze hard enough in the early rounds that he tires in the later ones, allowing ‘Fluffy’ to take over.
That won’t be easy, though. Unlike Michel Pereira, who always had a tendency to gas out, Dolidze has gone five rounds before, and he is also a very experienced grappler.
In addition, “The Caucasian” will be the toughest opponent Hernandez has ever faced, and “Fluffy” might be in trouble here. It is impossible to rule out Hernandez from any fight, and there is every chance that he will cause another upset in this one. However, it feels more likely that Dolidze is just too powerful for him.