Roman Dolidze responds to Robert Whittaker’s ‘pub fight’ criticism

Roman Dolidze fired back at Robert Whittaker for criticizing his past fight at UFC Fight Night 254.

Dolidze (14-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) called out both Israel Adesanya and Whittaker (26-8 MMA, 17-6 UFC) after avenging his loss to Marvin Vettori in their main event earlier this month at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Whittaker shut down the callout. The former UFC middleweight champion said Dolidze’s rematch with Vettori was a continuation of their first fight at UFC 286, and resembled a pub brawl. Dolidze didn’t appreciate Whittaker’s comments, and returned fire by mocking his quick submission loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308.

“This is a talking guy who was knocked out a couple of times and he got destroyed in his last fight,” Dolidze said of Whittaker in an interview with Home of Fight. “It’s even funny to me to listen to a guy like that. Yes, I will always respect my opponents and fighters. He’s a great fighter, he was a great champion, but listen: You’re speaking too loud. You need to prove that you are so tough.

“If you’re on your downfall, it doesn’t mean anything. If you’re scared to say normal words and speak normally – he’s not a person whose words I can take like that. It’s too loud for him to speak like that. We already saw what he’s capable of doing and how many times he was stopped, and he tapped. Me and Vettori are two guys who have never been stopped before.”

Dolidze is currently on a three-fight winning streak – defeating former title challenger Anthony Smith, stopping Kevin Holland, and most recently a unanimous decision over Vettori in their rematch.