Roman Dolidze gets short-notice nod vs. Anthony Smith

Roman Dolidze stepped up for a short-notice battle in the next weight class and got here away with a win.

Often a middleweight competitor, Dolidze (13-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) supplied his providers to fill in towards Anthony Smith at mild heavyweight on the primary card of UFC 303 at T-Cellular Area in Las Vegas. After quarter-hour, Dolidze earned a unanimous nod over Smith (38-20 MMA, 13-10 UFC) with scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28.

Dolidze set the tone early with a collection of kicks concentrating on Smith’s legs, physique and head. Whereas Smith pressured ahead trying to land punches, Dolidze attacked with kicks concentrating on the lead leg. Smith added a couple of kicks of his personal, however one which missed prompted a pleasant taunt from Dolidze.

Because the leg kick battle continued, heavy punches had been added to the combination late within the spherical, though a couple of boos had been heard because the fighters returned to their corners.

Spherical 2 picked up proper the place it left off, however an enormous second occurred when Dolidze blitzed ahead, inflicting Smith to stumble to the bottom. Dolidze rained in heavy punches as Smith coated up, ultimately resulting in prime floor management as he realized the end wasn’t there.

Smith exploded to his toes with lower than half a minute to go, trying to land an enormous haymaker. As an alternative, Dolidze landed properly.

Dolidze broke out a dancing taunt early in Spherical 3 as Smith focused his legs with kicks. Smith smiled and touched gloves with Dolidze after, and so they returned to buying and selling intermittent strikes.

Extra boos from the gang poured in with two minutes left, and each fighters responded by providing the next quantity of punches for a second. However the combat reached the ultimate horn, and the gang voiced extra displeasure with the competition.

Obtained the W on brief discover 💪@RomanDolidzeUFC is leaving #UFC303 with a victory! pic.twitter.com/dGY5SPZx9a

— UFC (@ufc) June 30, 2024

With the unanimous resolution win, Dolidze snaps a two-fight shedding skid. The Georgian entered this short-notice bout on the heels of a pair of resolution losses to Marvin Vettori and Nassourdine Imavov.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 303 outcomes embody:

Roman Dolidze def. Anthony Smith by way of by way of unanimous resolution (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Macy Chiasson def. Mayra Bueno Silva by way of TKO (physician’s stoppage, lower) – Spherical 2, 1:58
Ian Machado Garry vs. Michael Web page
Joe Pyfer def. Marc-Andre Barriault by way of knockout (punches) – Spherical 1, 1:25
Andre Fili def. Cub Swanson by way of unanimous resolution (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Jean Silva def. Charles Jourdain by way of knockout (punch) – Spherical 2, 1:22
Payton Talbott def. Yanis Ghemmouri by way of knockout (punches) – Spherical 1, 0:19
Gillian Robertson def. Michelle Waterson-Gomez by way of unanimous resolution (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Martin Buday def. Andrei Arlovski by way of break up resolution (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
Rei Tsuruya def. Carlos Hernandez by way of unanimous resolution (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Vinicius Oliveira def. Ricky Simon by way of unanimous resolution (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC 303.