ONE Championship signs two-division MMA champion Roberto Soldic to exclusive contract
- Soldic joins ONE after two-division title reign in popular Polish MMA organisation KSW, with finishes in 18 of his 20 pro victories
- Bosnian-born Croatian could be future opponent for ONE welterweight king Kiamrian Abbasov, as well as two-division champ Reinier de Ridder
ONE Championship has bolstered its roster with one of the hottest free agent talents in mixed martial arts.
On Tuesday, the Singapore-based martial arts promotion revealed the signing of Bosnian-born Croatian Roberto Soldic, a former two-division champion in Polish MMA organisation Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki – better known as KSW.
The 27-year-old, who is now based in Germany, subsequently announced the signing himself on his official Instagram account.
Soldic (20-3) competed for KSW from 2018 until earlier this year. In his first fight with the organisation, he captured the welterweight title with a stoppage of Borys Mankowski. He then lost that belt to current UFC contender Dricus du Plessis, only to reclaim it with a knockout of the same man in an immediate rematch.
After a string of welterweight title defences and non-title catchweight bouts, Soldic then captured the KSW middleweight title in his final bout with the promotion, knocking out Polish MMA legend Mamed Khalidov in round two.
Soldic has scored finishes in 18 of his 20 pro MMA victories, including a staggering 17 knockouts. His losses have come against Du Plessis, undefeated Bellator champion Yaroslav Amosov, and fellow prospect Marko Radakovic in his fourth pro fight. He is also 4-0 as a professional boxer, with four knockouts.
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The prolific finisher joins ONE at an opportune time, when both the promotion’s welterweight champion Kiamrian Abbasov and middleweight champion Reinier de Ridder are hungry for fresh challengers.
The details of the former KSW star’s ONE debut are not yet clear, but he told the promotion that he is interested in competing in the welterweight and middleweight divisions, as well as the promotion’s lightweight division, which is currently ruled by South Korea’s Ok Rae-yoon.
ONE chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong welcomed Soldic to his organisation in a post on Facebook.
“He has global ambitions of becoming the greatest combat sports athlete in history by winning world titles in multiple sports at the highest levels in the world,” Chatri said.
“It is one thing to win a world title under a given rule set. It is another thing to win multiple world titles under different rule sets in combat sports. Roberto has the crazy impossible dream to do something no one has ever achieved in history and win world titles in mixed martial arts, kickboxing, Muay Thai, boxing, etc in the world’s largest martial arts organisation.
“Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to watch Roberto train in Singapore. Without a doubt, he is an extraordinary talent. He possesses monster KO power as well as raw athletic talent with speed, balance, explosiveness, and cardio.”
