Latest news with #Fedor
CBS News
23-04-2025
- General
- CBS News
Michigan Catholics travel to Rome to pay respects to Pope Francis
The world continues to mourn the loss of Pope Francis, including Catholics in Michigan. Michiganders, including a group of students and their teachers from Metro Detroit, joined tens of thousands of people from around the world at the Vatican on Saturday to pay their respects to the pope before he is laid to rest. "We knew he was sick, you know. We prayed and hoped we would get to see him (alive)," said Anna Fedor, who is with a group of students from Gabriel Richard Catholic Church in Riverview, Michigan. "We didn't get to see him, but we could feel him." This is Fedor's 11th trip to Rome. She's been lucky enough to see Pope Francis twice, but she's never seen crowds as big as the one currently in Rome. "I saw Pope Francis at an outdoor blessing. I got to see Pope Francis in Mexico City with two of my best friends," Fedor said. "What a testimony to a man's life who was so kind. You know, people that aren't just Catholic have a deep respect for Pope Francis over here." Fedor and her students are headed back to Michigan on Friday before the Pope's funeral. "To be here during these historical times, and to see the room, just to see the Sistine Chapel, is amazing," Fedor said.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Roman Dolidze, the late bloomer who became UFC's unlikeliest contender, ready to make good on second chance
There's a fellow from Batumi, the second largest city in the country of Georgia, who has a master's degree in management and economy. He owns several properties, including a quaint little grocery store called the Green Wood Market, just down from the Holy Christ the Savior Church on the Black Sea. He is a gentle soul by all accounts, friendly to the passersby and a proud member of his Georgian community. With a mother who's a doctor and a father who works as an engineer, he comes from an accomplished family, and he was lucky enough to inherit an athletic gene. In fact, Roman Dolidze was an accomplished soccer player, who spent three years as a goalkeeper on a professional team in Turkey. 'Let's say correct, football,' he says. 'When you are playing real football, you [have to] depend on how your team will play, especially when you are goalkeeper like I was. But here, everything's in your hands. Win or lose, it's everything up on you. And that works much better for me than anything else.' The 'here' he's talking about is fighting. About a decade ago Dolidze segued into the art of punching faces and ransacking human properties. Somewhere along the way he caught wind of a sport in which the competitors were the sole masters of their own fate, in total control of the chaos they themselves created. It was Fedor Emelianenko that first caught his attention, fighting monsters in the PRIDE FC ring in Japan. Dolidze watched intently as Fedor — who was the picture of cathedral calm before and after a fight, yet hell unleashed in between — took care of his business. The Great Emperor became the spark. 'After football, I [went] for education to Ukraine,' Dolidze says. 'And all my life I was in sport, and I still wanted to do something. And on YouTube, I saw the PRIDE competition fights. I didn't even know back then that it doesn't exist anymore. I was still watching it [thinking it was current]. "Fedor was [the] biggest star probably back then and I saw that he was doing combat sambo. Alright? And that, I was interested in. 'What is this?' And I go do sambo training ... I didn't like much what was going on in class [so] I started grappling. And after a couple years, when I was 27 or 28, and I started doing MMA.' That was back in 2016, the year Dolidze had his first pro fight at the age of 28. To put that into context, by the time he was 28 years old, Max Holloway had already been in 29 pro fights, including eight title fights and a sustained run as the UFC's featherweight champion. Dolidze got off to a very late start, yet he made up ground quickly, fighting a half-dozen times in two years in the Ukraine. 'The funniest part, I never thought that I would be fighting,' he says. 'I was doing grappling, and I was winning everything when I was doing World Champion Europe, Champion ADCC Asia, and a lot of interesting and good competitions. And I always was watching MMA through this. I was thinking, 'These guys hit each other — I don't like this kind of sport. I will never do this. I'm good in grappling, I will always grapple.' 'But one organization came to Ukraine called WWFC [World Warriors FC], and I fought there [for] six fights. After four fights they already offer me fifth fight for title. And they bring very good opponents always. Like my fifth opponent [Eder de Souza], he had, if I remember correctly, a record of 12-3, 15 fights. And I had only four fights and no amateur career. That's no amateur — directly, bro. And I won this fight. I knocked this guy out.' And after that? 'And after that they bring me another good guy, Polish guy [Michal Pasternak],' he says. 'He had also like 16 or something fights, and I also knock him out with a backfist. After this, UFC program saw me somehow and they offer me a contract. I signed directly with the UFC after two years of fighting. They needed guys with a name, and I had good name in Ukraine because of so many grappling competitions.' Dolidze, who's now 36 years old, fights on Saturday in a main event at the UFC APEX. It's his second-ever UFC main event, the first coming against middleweight contender Nassourdine Imavov in February 2024. He has posted a record of 8-3 in the UFC and — with back-to-back victories over Anthony Smith and Kevin Holland — is currently ranked No. 12 in the promotion's official rankings. At one point he was moving up the rungs at a breakneck pace, only to be derailed by Marvin Vettori at UFC 286, in what was a debatable decision. So debatable, in fact, that the UFC is running it back. Italy's Vettori is all that stands in the way of Dolidze making headway toward the top five of the middleweight division, which is where he was headed in 2023 after piecing together four straight wins to make some waves. 'This is a fight that I wanted, but this is a fight that I didn't expect that UFC will offer,' he says. 'I definitely think I won the first fight. But I didn't expect that UFC will offer me him. And I was very glad when I heard his name, and I was very glad that he also agreed to fight. Now I have [the] opportunity to give answers to all [the] questions we [still] have.' The main question: Is Dolidze a true contender? Can he be like his fellow countryman, UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, and bring another title back to Georgia? Or did he come to MMA a little too late to make a serious run at a belt? 'I think after this fight, I will get somebody from top five,' he says. 'And top five is very messy now — messy in a good way. It's a lot of guys who are waiting [for] their title shot and they deserve it. But anyway, I will get somebody from there who [are] already waiting their title shot. I will just take their spot and I will be the next contender. That's all.' First thing's first, though, the rematch with Vettori. This time the fellow from Batumi won't be trying to knock the Italian's head off his shoulders. He promises to be more discerning in how he delegates his power. 'I think I fought with anger with him last time,' he says. 'With every punch, I was trying to knock him out. Every punch. Now I understand more what I need to do. And he also surprised me last time because he didn't go forward at all. All his fights, he always goes forward. But with me, he was stepping back and moving around but not going forward, and I didn't expect that. Now I'm ready for anything what he can offer."
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Waterford school board to vote on proposed 6.5% budget increase
Waterford — The school board is set to vote Thursday on the proposed $61.36 million school budget for 2025-26 and its 6.5% increase. The spending plan is about $3.8 million more than the current school budget. After the board's vote at its 6 p.m. meeting at Town Hall, the budget will be sent to the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting for approval. The board has already held two budget workshops this month during which board members looked for places to cut the initial $61.46 million plan proposed by Superintendent Thomas Giard. Board Chairwoman Pat Fedor said there wasn't much wiggle room" to reduce the budget without sacrificing staff, their benefits or necessary equipment. "One percent of our budget was really all we had control over," Fedor said. That's because Giard said the other 99% of the increase is due to staff raises and health insurance benefits, along with the replacement of Chromebooks for students. Replacements are needed every 5 to 6 years. Fedor said as a result, no major changes were made to the budget at the workshops, including to current staffing. The $95,000 reduction that was done by eliminating a new $60,000 information technologies position while a $35,000 grant was found to fund pre-kindergarten equipment. "Nobody gets adversely impacted," Fedor said. "We're not laying anybody off. Giard said new contracts with raises for school administrators and paraprofessionals take effect in the 2025-26 budget. In the proposed budget, two full-time teaching positions and two half-time positions left vacant due to retirements or resignations will be replaced by two multilingual teachers and a pre-kindergarten position. A presentation to the school board last month showed the number of multilingual learners, which most often refers to students who are learning English as a second language, has tripled over the past years. State law requires a bilingual program be added at Oswegatchie Elementary School in 2025-26 and likely another at Quaker Hill Elementary School in 2026-27. Giard said the proposed budget also addresses the need by adding two multilingual tutors costing $75,000. The tutors will work under the guidance of the multilingual teachers, he said. Also added to the proposed budget is $25,000 for a part-time World Language teaching position to help replace a retiring language teacher.
