Roman Dolidze (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
FanSided MMA’s 2023 fighters to watch.
What a year 2022 was for combat sports, better or worse. We saw a betting scandal, a majority draw title fight, the changing of the guard for several titles, and many millionaires were made. FanSided MMA will be announcing its end-of-the-year awards soon, but until then, we wanted to take a look ahead.
Here, some of the FanSided staff and contributors picked their 2023 fighters to watch in both boxing and MMA. This is someone that the individual writer thinks will shine in 2023 for one reason or another.
Who do you think we are missing from our list?
Roman Dolidze – Nominated by Amy Kaplan
2022 was the year of Roman Dolidze.
He is currently riding a four-fight win streak, three coming in 2022. Each of his performances is better than the next and even secured the biggest win of his career after TKOing Jack Hermansson at UFC Orlando in December.
Fans and UFC brass are high on the Georgian, who credits his more-exciting fight style to Michael Bisping who called him out on a broadcast as being boring (thank you, Bisping!)
We only see bigger and better things for Dolidze in 2023 and perhaps if the cards are dealt correctly even a No. 1 contender fight or even a title shot.
