Roman Dolidze vs. Michel Pereira Joins June 8 UFC Louisville Event

At
UFC on ESPN 57 on June 8, the promotion will be traveling to
Louisville, Kentucky, to post up at the KFC Yum! Center. The main
event was
recently made official, with the reported pairing of Jared
Cannonier and Nassourdine
Imavov coming together earlier on Thursday. Serving on the main
card will a 185-pound scrap between Roman
Dolidze (12-3) and Michel
Pereira (31-11, 2 NC), as first reported by Eurosport_NL
on Thursday. This muscular match has since been confirmed by

other outlets.

Dolidze was initially set to battle Anthony
Hernandez at UFC 302, but an injury for Hernandez scuttled the
pairing. The Georgian was shifted back one week to accommodate for
his opponent’s recent fight. He finds himself on his first losing
streak of his career, having dropped back-to-back decisions to
Marvin
Vettori in 2023 and Imavov in 2024. Prior to the losses, the
35-year-old had rattled off four straight wins, including three
knockouts, claiming victories over names including Jack
Hermansson and Phil
Hawes.

Brazil’s Pereira has amassed an eight-fight win streak across two
divisions, including three in his new weight class up at 185
pounds. In those three trips to the cage, Pereira prevailed in a
combined 3:01, knocking out Andre
Petroski and then submitting Michal
Oleksiejczuk and Ihor
Potieria. In his last outing, the high-flying sportsman landed
a knee to a grounded Potieria’s head while performing a back flip
to pass guard, and on review the commission determined it did not
alter the outcome of the fight.

UFC on ESPN 57 goes down at the KFC Yum! Center on June 8 in
Louisville, Kentucky, with a middleweight main attraction recently
breaking between Jared
Cannonier and Nassourdine
Imavov. The lineup has not been finalized to determine the
order of the main card, but bouts that featured on it include
Dolidze-Pereira, Dominick
Reyes vs. Dustin
Jacoby at light heavyweight and Raul Rosas
Jr. against Ricky
Turcios in a rescheduled bantamweight affair.