After more than a year on the sidelines, Marvin Vettori had high hopes for his long-awaited return to the octagon. However, things didn’t go as planned. ‘The Italian Dream’ fell short, suffering a unanimous decision loss to Roman Dolidze. The victory was especially sweet for Dolidze because he avenged his previous loss to Vettori at UFC 286 in 2023. Wasting no time, he used the moment to make some bold callouts, seizing the spotlight after his hard-fought win. Roman Dolidze, following his win, claimed he “deserved” a top 5 fight. The 36-year-old does have a point after extending his winning streak to three fights. So who does he want to fight next? It seems he has his eyes on two former middleweight champions Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker.

During the post-fight interview, the Georgian fighter said, “There are two realistic fights for me. It’s Whittaker or Adesanya. Let’s go. Just give me a date,”. What was even more surprising was that he promised UFC CEO Dana White that he could return to action in less than a week if needed. Well, we all know that the Georgian isn’t going to get a fight this soon after going five rounds with Vettori. But what happens if he does get his wish and gets into a fight with Israel Adesanya? According to former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling, Dolidze wins the fight via submission. ‘The Funk Master’ took to his Instagram account to share a clip of The Weekly Scraps Podcast.

In the video, he pointed out what exactly could happen in the fight and said, ” If Roman can get him down, I think Roman could submit him relatively easy. And I’m only saying that because I’ve seen Roman grapple. I’ve have grappled with Roman. Of course, he is twice my size. But his skills on the ground are actually super legit. I’ve heard stories about him grappling with Jon Jones and a few years ago. So my intuition tells me he takes down Izzy. He’s probably submitting Izzy”. 

Well, it will be interesting to see whether the Georgian fighter gets his wish to fight Adesanya or Whittaker. ‘The Reaper’ has already denied the call out and while having a conversation with The MMArcade podcast, said, “I’m trying to fight a top-five guy, dude. Join the queue. I wanna fight Sean [Strickland]. International Fight Week.” Even Adesanya has yet to respond to the call out. So what’s next for ‘The Caucasian’? It seems he is interested in a trilogy fight with Marvin Vettori.

If not Israel Adesanya, Roman Dolidze wants to return the favor to Marvin Vettori

Following his rematch defeat, Marvin Vettori took to his X account to make his case for a trilogy fight. With the score now tied at 1-1, ‘The Italian Dream’ believes the UFC should settle the rivalry once and for all. The 31-year-old tweeted, “I guess we need a trilogy. The most nonsense trilogy I agree with you ba..ards lol. But at this point, it has to happen.”

A trilogy fight between the two will definitely be worth the watch. But how does ‘The Caucasian’ feel about it? Speaking to the media at the UFC Vegas 104 press conference, Roman Dolidze acknowledged the possibility of a rematch. However, he made it clear that he had some conditions before agreeing to run it back.

The 36-year-old said, “Let’s be fair here, he gave me this rematch. If UFC needed it and they tell me about it, I’ll probably do it, just out of respect. Because I respect that he agreed to fight me. Why would he do this? Back then, I was No. 10, he was No. 7. He said he thought that it was Roman Kopylov, and he agreed to fight me. And just because of that respect, of mine to him, I can do this. But the UFC will have other plans for me,”. 

It’s unclear what the UFC has planned for the Georgian standout, but one thing is undeniable—this victory has significantly boosted his stock within the promotion. Who do you think he will be facing next in the division? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.