Roman Dolidze sheds light on misunderstanding surrounding Michel Pereira fight - "I'm asking to fight Caio, but he is injured"

Roman Dolidze has addressed the recent announcement of his purported matchup against Michel Pereira at UFC Louisville after the latter's claims of not having signed a contract to fight him.

Earlier this week, Dolidze, who initially thought both sides were in agreement for the matchup, took to social media claiming that he had postponed his plans to fight from June 1 to June 12 to facilitate a clash against Pereira.

However, a fan prompted Dolidze not to blame Pereira for the UFC trying to force them into a fight. 'The Caucasian' was quick to disperse such narratives and revealed that he was eager to take on No.12-ranked Caio Borralho, who is now apparently sidelined after his recent win over Paul Craig.

"I don't blame him, he is a good person, [a] good fighter. It's just some misunderstanding. I was told he expected the fight and [was] asked to change the date. I [was] asking to fight Caio [Borralho], but he is injured."

Check out Roman Dolidze's post below:

Dolidze was last seen in action in a majority decision loss to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Fight Night 235 in February. He is 3-2 in his last five and is the No.11-ranked contender at middleweight.

The Georgian was originally slated to face Anthony Hernandez at UFC 302, but a hand injury on his opponent's side scrapped the bout from the upcoming pay-per-view.

Meanwhile, Pereira is on an eight-fight win streak. At the recently concluded UFC 301 pay-per-view in Brazil, he delivered a quick submission win over Ihor Potieria, finishing his counterpart in under a minute. He currently holds the No.13 spot in the middleweight rankings.

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What did Michel Pereira say about fighting Roman Dolidze?

As rumors of the Roman Dolidze vs. Michel Pereira matchup started making rounds online earlier this week, 'Demolidor' took to Instagram to clarify that he has not signed a contract to fight 'The Caucasian'.

In an Instagram story, the 30-year-old elaborated, saying :

"I didn't accept that fight. That man, he trains with me every day. He trains with me at the UFC PI. He trains at Xtreme Couture and he fights. He accepted the fight, I didn't. For me now is not the time to fight him. If he accepted, that's his problem... For me, he was my friend, my training partner in my head. But I see that it's not [the same for him]." [Translation via Ag Fight]

Catch Michel Pereira's comments below:

Pereira added that since they train together, he'd have to re-organize his training camp and find another gym if we were to take on Dolidze.