Four minutes and one takedown
Roman Dolidze had been finished once in fifteen professional fights, and never by strikes. That line in his record survived until a few hours ago in Sacramento.
Reinier de Ridder needed twenty seconds to put Dolidze on the canvas at UFC Fight Night 285, and he never gave the mat back. Referee Frank Trigg waved it off at 4:01 of the opening round with the Georgian absorbing punches he had no answer for. De Ridder moves to 22-4 in MMA and 5-2 inside the UFC.
“I knew he was going to go for the legs, he does that every time,” de Ridder said afterwards. “We prepared for this. I wanted to show some knees and kicks, but we’ll save that for next time.”
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A weight class that suits him
Both men were making their promotional debut at 205 pounds. For de Ridder that is a return rather than an experiment. The Dutchman held the light heavyweight title in ONE Championship before signing with the UFC, where he chose to start at middleweight instead. Two straight losses at 185 sent him back up.
The fight was a study in accumulation. After the early takedown he hunted submissions, drifted into light ground and pound, then reset after a scramble around the two-minute mark. Trigg spent forty-five seconds telling Dolidze to improve his position while the Georgian covered up and did nothing else, blocking or half-blocking enough shots to buy himself time. De Ridder then moved to side control, took full mount with 75 seconds left, and the elbows and punches from there ended it.
The rest of the Golden 1 Center card
Ten of the eleven fights on the card ended inside the distance. Shamil Gaziev needed 80 seconds to knock out Kennedy Nzechukwu. MarQuel Mederos stopped Mason Jones in the second round, and Chris Padilla caught Nasrat Haqparast in an arm-triangle with one second left in the third. Stan Dorsainvil’s 29-28 sweep of Gauge Young was the only fight the judges had to score.
Dolidze falls to 15-5 overall and 9-5 in the promotion.
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