Rolando Dy won’t be returning to MMA after all but we do know the identity of the opponent who had been lined up for the Filipino’s comeback fight. He had signed up to face Ahmed Amir and there is clearly bad blood between the two men.
Last month Dy revealed he had decided to return to MMA to face ‘someone I hate’. The UFC veteran hadn’t competed in the sport for over a year and seemed to have switched focus to bare knuckle boxing.
News of his comeback came as a surprise but no sooner had Dy begun training than the fight was called off. He explained why on Facebook:
“My MMA comeback on December will not happen. Ahmed Amir got injured, at least according to his camp.”
Street fighting
He also explained why he hates the Egyptian so much. It all stems from an altercation which must have occurred when both men were in attendance at a Brave event, either to fight or to corner members of their respective teams.
According to Dy it went down like this,
“Ahmed Amir tried to fight me in the streets of Bahrain when he was with his friend and I was with my wife.”
It is not unprecedented for fighters to get in altercations at the hotel. The most famous incident occurred when Khabib Nurmagomedov confronted Artem Lobov before an event in New York.
Back then Lobov was training with Conor McGregor and the Irishman and his entourage flew all the way from Dublin in order to attack Nurmagomedov who was on a fighter’s bus.
Four years ago today, Conor McGregor launched a trolley at a bus transporting UFC fighters including Khabib Nurmagomedov.
His actions set in motion the most-heated feud in UFC history – and sent the rivals down very different paths…
✍️ @harrydavies14 https://t.co/YegiCbdtn2 pic.twitter.com/o9C7UpSDB2
— Mirror Fighting (@MirrorFighting) April 5, 2022
No footage
Unfortunately there is no footage of the confrontation between Dy and Amir so we will just have to take the Filipino’s word for it. He clearly wanted to fight Amir and was willing to come out of retirement in order to do it.
Dy sounded very disappointed to discover that Amir had pulled out of the fight,
“Now Brave Combat Federation gave us a chance to do it legally inside the cage and all of the sudden he is injured? Ahmed Amir is such a baby girl. He just want easy match ups, or favorable match ups.”
He is currently 2-0 in bare knuckle boxing. Yesterday Dy floated the idea of competing in regular, sanctioned boxing and there would surely be a lot of interest in seeing him compete in the sport where his father made his name.
Rolando Navarette was a world champion boxer but he has had well publicized issues with drink and drugs and is currently estranged from his son. The 32 year old started boxing relatively late in life but has already enjoyed success and it sounds like his focus will be here with that MMA comeback on hold,
“Oh well, I will just focus on bare knuckle boxing.”
