The bout between Roman Dolidze and Michel Pereira no longer goes ahead on June 8 live from KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, KY. The middleweights were expected to square off in the three-round match up at UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs Imavov.
The contest was reported last week, although no official announcement was made by the promotion. According to MMA Fighting, Pereira “said no” to the fight with his training partner.
“I didn’t agree to this fight. The man trains with me every day at the P.I., at Xtreme Couture,” Pereira said in Portuguese. “He agreed to it, but I haven’t. To me, it’s not the moment to fight him. If he agreed to it, that’s his problem. I was surprised he agreed to it, really. To me, in my head, he’s a training partner, a friend. I see I’m not.”
“I would have to find another gym and organize everything to fight him. “That’s why I didn’t accept it. He trained at Xtreme, and since I’m new there, I would have to go out and train somewhere else. I don’t even know where I would train. It’s too much logistics to fight in a month.”
“I’ll remove him from [a list] of those I won’t fight and add to [a list] of those I’d fight. I’ll organize myself to fight him. When they offered me a fight [at UFC Louisville], they didn’t say the opponent. It was a bummer when they said the opponent, and I said no.”
Michel Pereira (31-11, 2 NC) is fresh off the win by submission in the first round against Ihor Potieria early May. In March, the 30-year-old Brazilian mixed martial artist similarly defeated Michal Oleksiejczuk.
Roman Dolidze (12-3) was initially expected to fight Anthony Hernandez on June 1 at UFC 302 in Newark, NJ, but the bout fell off reportedly due to hand injury to the latter. Georgia’s 35-year-old said he was told the fight was agreed for June 8.
“Yes we train together,” Dolidze posted on X. “I was told that he agreed to fight in June 8 (not June 1 when I was originally supposed to fight) and ufc ask me to change date. Yesterday they send me contract. If they ask me to change date (which he asked for) and he agree of course I signed contract (sic).”
In the UFC Louisville main event, former middleweight title challenger Jared Cannonier of Dallas, Texas faces Nassourdine Imavov of France. The current lineup looks as the following:
- Jared Cannonier vs. Nassourdine Imavov, middleweight
- Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios, bantamweight
- Miguel Baeza vs. Punahele Soriano, welterweight
- Thiago Moises vs. Ludovit Klein, lightweight
- Dominick Reyes vs. Dustin Jacoby, light heavyweight
- Charles Radtke vs. Carlos Prates, welterweight
- Brunno Ferreira vs. Dustin Stoltzfus, middleweight
- John Castaneda vs. Daniel Marcos, bantamweight
- Brad Katona vs. Jesse Butler, bantamweight
- Cody Stamann vs. Taylor Lapilus, bantamweight
- Eduarda Moura vs. Denise Gomes, women’s strawweight
- Julian Marquez vs. Zachary Reese, middleweight
- Andrea Lee vs. Montana De La Rosa, women’s flyweight
- Rayanne dos Santos vs. Puja Tomar, women’s strawweight