Did you know that the popularity of mixed martial arts or MMA is growing rapidly in India? MMA is a full-contact combat sport and is an amalgamation of various combat sport techniques. The likes of Bharat Kandare and Puja Tomar made history when they joined American MMA promotion company – the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Tomar, a five-time national wushu champion, was the first Indian MMA fighter
to win a UFC bout. MMA is overall edging out sports like tennis and basketball in terms of viewership, in India.
This is why it wasn’t really surprising to hear Georgian UFC star, Roman Dolidze be extremely positive about India producing more MMA fighters in years to come. Dolidze was born in Georgia, but his love of sports has taken him to countries like Turkey, Ukraine, and the USA. The 36-year-old played football for eight years, the last three of which saw him play professionally, as a goal-keeper, in Turkey. He turned to martial arts while studying shipbuilding engineering, in Ukraine. The martial art of grappling caught his attention and in a very short period of time, after he picked it up, he won the World and the European Championships in grappling.
The next turning point was training and competing in mixed martial arts in 2016 and then a life-changing UFC contract. He currently holds a 7-3 win-loss record in the UFC and has won three of his last five bouts. He also has seven wins by knockout in mixed martial arts overall but is still looking for his first win by submission in the UFC. Dolidze says that even at the age of 36 and having been an athlete all his life, he is still learning new things every day.
The 6 foot 3 inches tall fighter’s next fight is on Sunday against American Kevin Holland, who also has three wins in his last five fights.
In this exclusive interview, Roman Dolidze talks about his journey from Georgia to the MMA, the overall growth in popularity of the MMA, including in his country of Georgia, his fighting strengths, how he went from playing professional football to learning martial arts and then mixed martial arts, his advice for budding MMA fighters in countries like India and more.
Excerpts…
You began training in the martial arts in Ukraine, where you first tasted professional MMA action. What drew you to martial arts like Sambo, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, and grappling, to begin with?
Dolidze: I started my sports journey as a football player, playing the last three years in Turkey. I didn’t achieve the levels that I had dreamt of. I am a guy who always likes to be on top of the mountain. It’s not okay for me if I am not at the top. When it (football career) didn’t happen for me, I decided to go for further education in Ukraine. I started my education there and in the same year, because all my life I had been involved in sports, I tried to find something for myself (in Ukraine). At that time, I was watching the Pride (Fighting) Championship (former Japanese MMA promotion company, 1997-2007) on YouTube. I didn’t even know that Pride (Championship) didn’t exist anymore (became defunct in 2007 after being acquired and deactivated by American sports promotion company Zuffa), because I was watching it on Youtube. I found out that Fedor Emelianenko (former Russia professional MMA fighter, sambist, judoka and politician) is a sambo (Soviet origin martial art, practiced internationally as a combat sport) guy.
I then found out that in my University, we have a combat sambo class and I said – ‘I will try this’. When I went there, I realised it was not what I had seen on Pride (Championship), it was very different. To be honest, I didn’t like it. There was this one guy, who became my best friend in Ukraine, he was a jiu-jitsu (Brazilian self-defense martial art and combat sport, different from the traditional Japanese martial art form of jujutsu in origins, focuses, and applications) lover. He has the first Gi (traditional uniform made of a jacket, pants and a belt, worn in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and other martial arts) probably in Ukraine. He was training and he started rolling (sparring or drilling at different intensities) with me. Like this, I found out about grappling (combat sport that looks like wrestling, but is different in rules, techniques, and strategies) and jiu-jitsu.
How old were you when you began to grapple? Tell me a little bit more about how life progressed after that…
Dolidze: I was about 22-23 when I started grappling. And I started winning very quickly. In football, you have to depend on your team, I was a goalkeeper. But in grappling everything depends on you. If you are good, you are good, if you are bad, you are bad. I won the Ukrainian championship after about 6-7 months (since beginning to grapple). I was also winning jiu-jitsu (competitions). I was also competing in FILA grappling (full contact, non-striking hybrid contact sport sanctioned by the world governing body of amateur wrestling, United World Wrestling), European (championships), and world (championships). I won the (FILA) world championships (in grappling) and I thought – ’no, this is not so hard, maybe ADCC (submission fighting world championship, which is an international grappling competition) will be harder.’ So, I decided to go and try ADCC and I won that (became ADCC Asia and Oceania champion in 2016). Everything was very fast and easy for me. I was 28 and I had never even thought of becoming a fighter, because I used to watch on TV and say to myself – ’they hit each other, I don’t like this. I will never do this.’ Then a big organisation who were previously in France and had moved to Ukraine told me – ‘we want guys who people know here.’ And I was competing a lot in grappling and people knew me in that community. I said – ‘ok, let me try.’ They were also going to pay me. It was different from grappling, where there isn’t too much money.
I did four fights, they offered me a fight for a belt. They were bringing in good guys, there was good competition. I beat these guys without even using my grappling skills. UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) probably saw this, because I was winning in strange ways, like very heavy overhand (punch), knockouts, back-fist knockouts and UFC directly offered me a contract. Like this, out of nowhere, after two years in MMA, when I was 30, I had signed with UFC.
Georgia has a rich culture and tradition of producing incredible wrestlers. Out of the 47 Olympic medals the country has won so far, 21 have been won in wrestling. The ‘Chidaoba’ (traditional Georgian wrestling) has a rich history. You never dabbled in wrestling, yourself?
Dolidze: Never. Can you imagine? Never, in my life. I would look at wrestlers and say – ‘oh, these sweaty guys, hugging each other. I don’t like it.’ And then I ended up doing almost the Kama Sutra in grappling (laughs). It’s very strange. I never thought in my life that I would be doing this, that I would be fighting or grappling. People end their careers at 22 and I started grappling at the age of 22. At the age of 28, in MMA, the first time I wore gloves. Even now, when I think about it, I find it amazing. A lot of people say – ‘oh, Roman can do this and that’, but the first time I knocked down a guy, I didn’t even understand why he fell down. I followed him and did a leg-lock (for a win via submission). It was all very new for me and don’t forget that at the time I was 28 years old.
Like you mentioned earlier, you played football for eight years, and were a professional goalkeeper in Turkey for three of those years. Do you still follow some football?
Dolidze: Nowadays, I don’t follow any football. But I remember everything about the time when I used to be a goalkeeper. I can name a lot of goalkeepers from that time. It was also a very interesting time for me because I was 16 years old at the time. I was living alone. It was a different country and that had an effect on my personality. Every little break that I have got in my life matters to me. The mistakes, the good things – I am responsible for everything and I am glad about everything that has happened in my life.
You made your MMA debut in 2016 – from then to now, how much has the landscape of MMA changed in the countries where you lived and trained, you think?
Dolidze: I started martial arts in Ukraine. When I was in Georgia, I wasn’t even interested in this. MMA (mixed martial arts) in Ukraine was much, much, much bigger. Amateur MMA is even bigger now in Ukraine. But if you talk about popularity, about professional athletes, about the success that fighters have tasted – Georgia now is at another level.
In the eight years that you have been an MMA fighter, if you had to pick one bout that is still the most memorable one for you or had the biggest impact on your life, which one would that be and why?
Dolidze: I think all the fights have been important. If we talk about fights having an effect on my life and career then we have to go back to 2022. That year I had three fights, three knockout wins, three bonuses (cash awards given to fighters for their performances). At the end of the year, I became number eight in the world. That had the biggest effect on my life and career.
You came from grappling, you have a 13-3 win-loss record so far in MMA, with 7 of those wins coming via knockouts. If you had to list your biggest strengths, as you become a more well-rounded fighter, what would they be?
Dolidze: People don’t understand this, because I am 36 years old, but the fact is that I am still learning. Every day I am learning something about myself, about the sport, about everything and I am changing. You are right – I am more well-rounded now, probably. But though I came from grappling, I don’t have wins by submission in my career (in UFC), but I have so many knockout wins. Which is why I would say that I am still trying to get better in every aspect of the sport.
Your next fight is against American Kevin Holland. What will be the biggest challenges in this encounter for you, and also what should Kevin Holland be wary of, in terms of what you will bring to the table for this bout?
Dolidze: He is a good opponent. He has good striking (capabilities), but I am ready for anything. He has had good wins against grapplers, but then (Jack) Hermansson (Dolidze beat world number 14 middleweight fighter, Hermansson via TKO) also had wins against grapplers, so I am ready for it (next fight), no matter what he (next opponent, Kevin Holland) brings.
Do you ever visualise how a fight is going to go?
Dolidze: No, I never do this. I am a grappler who won the worlds, won trials, in ADCC, and a lot of other competitions and I don’t have any submission wins in the UFC. Everybody feels – ‘oh, he is a grappler, he will submit’. But who knows, maybe in this fight (vs Kevin Holland) I will have a submission.
You have set the bar quite high. What would your technical advice be for budding athletes, maybe some in India, who want to conquer the MMA world someday? It’s a relatively new sport in countries like India…
Dolidze: First of all, I want to say that India is an amazing country, with a rich culture. There are so many countries in Asia that I want to go to and India is one of them. You never know how or what can change. Like I said earlier – when I was in Ukraine, I saw that Georgia was nowhere close to Ukraine (in terms of MMA reach and popularity) because to have good fighters you have to help them develop stage by stage. Ukraine had all of that. But if you see the jump that Georgia made (Georgian fighters like Roman, Merab Dvalishvili and Ilia Topuria are making waves in MMA thereby pushing up the popularity of the sport in Georgia), now Ukraine can’t compare with Georgia in terms of pro-MMA athletes.
It could be the same with India – you never know what could happen tomorrow. Georgia has a population of 3 and a half million and compare that to India, which is the most populated country in the world. A lot of people think it’s China, but it’s actually India, right? I am sure there can be a lot of guys who are amazing fighters (in India), who can show their talent and it (landscape of MMA in India) can change very fast. I can just say that they need to be ready – like me – I was 28 years old and I was ready (for MMA), and now I am in the UFC, in the top 10 in the middleweight rankings. So, everything can change. We just need to be ready. Also, I would like to tell them (budding MMA aspirants in countries like India), like a father, that they don’t need to only think about fighting, they need to grow in every aspect of life. Work on both your brain and body. That would be my advice.
Watch UFC 307 – Pereira vs Rountree Jr. LIVE on the Sony Sports Network on October 6, 2024 from 7:30 AM.