Rivalries: Roberto Soldic

It was almost as if Roberto Soldic spawned at the intersection of hype and substance.

The former two-division KSW titleholder will make his hotly anticipated One Championship debut when he confronts the unbeaten Murad Ramazanov in a ONE on Prime Video 5 welterweight showcase on Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Philippines. Soldic has rattled off seven consecutive victories, six of them via knockout or technical knockout. The 27-year-old Croatian has never fought outside of Europe.

As Soldic moves ever closer to his forthcoming battle with Ramazanov at 185 pounds, a look at a few of the rivalries that have helped shape his career to this point:

Yaroslav Amosov

The undefeated Ukrainian captured the vacant Tech-Krep Fighting Championship welterweight crown when he was awarded a split decision over Soldic in the TKFC Prime Selection 8 main event on June 18, 2016 at the Olympus Sports Palace in Krasnodar, Russia. Amosov spun his wheels for much of the first round, affording his Croatian counterpart the opportunity to seize the reins with jab-cross combinations and kicks to the leg and body. Soldic, however, lost his tenuous grip on momentum. Amosov caught a kick late in the middle stanza, tripped him to the floor and stayed busy with punches and hammerfists from top position for more than a minute. The decorated sambo stylist kept Soldic at bay in a decisive Round 3, where he scored with jabs, snuck in a head kick and circled away from danger, as he refused to allow “Robocop” to cut off the ring and forced him to throw punches and kicks from a less-than desirable range.

Borys Mankowski

Soldic laid claim to the Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki welterweight championship when he prompted a corner stoppage against “The Tasmanian Devil” in between the third and fourth rounds of their KSW 41 headliner on Dec. 23, 2017 at Spodek in Katowice, Poland. Mankowski’s reign lasted more than 1,300 days. Soldic tenderized the Pole’s right side with brutal kicks and searing left hooks, cut off his bids for takedowns with an effective sprawl and made life miserable for the longtime champion. Mankowski enjoyed some success with low kicks, but little else went his way. Soldic took top position behind a body kick in the third round, escaped a heel hook and settled in half guard. From there, he unleashed hellacious ground-and-pound, utilizing elbows as his primary weapon. Exhausted and battered, Mankowski never made it back to his stool between rounds and eventually had to be lifted onto it by his cornermen.

Dricus Du Plessis

The South African kickboxer rose to power as the fourth welterweight champion in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki history when he put away Soldic with punches in the second round of their KSW 43 main event on April 14, 2018 at Centennial Hall in Wroclaw, Poland. Du Plessis brought it to a close 1:37 into Round 2. Soldic teed off on the challenger in the first round and had him reeling on more than one occasion with his patented power punching bursts. Du Plessis stayed composed under fire, executed a spectacular belly-to-back suplex and moved to the backpack position late in the period. He then dragged Soldic to the canvas from behind, secured himself with a body triangle and went to work on a rear-naked choke, letting the Croatian know he had no plans to go away quietly. Early in Round 2, Du Plessis walked “Robocop” into a crushing counter left hook that dropped him where he stood. Rapid-fire punches with conviction followed, resulting in the stoppage. Soldic exacted a measure of revenge in their KSW 45 rematch some six months later, as he pulled even in their head-to-head series and reclaimed the welterweight crown with a third-round knockout of the Team CIT rep.

Mamed Khalidov

Soldic entered an entirely new competitive stratosphere when he became a rare simultaneous two-division champion under the KSW 65 marquee at Arena Gliwice. There, he took possession of the Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki middleweight title with a stunning second-round knockout of Khalidov on Dec. 18, 2021 in Gliwice, Poland. The end came 3:40 into Round 2. A competitive first round with plenty of give and take allowed Soldic to get his feet under him against the longtime promotional superstar. Khalidov controlled the center of the cage to start the second, pawed with his jab and did his best to knock the Croatian out of rhythm. Those efforts failed. Soldic slipped out of range, decked him with a devastating left hook, followed the “Cannibal” to the mat and pounded him senseless with punches. Khalidov stayed down for several minutes, blood erupting from his damaged nose once he attempted to sit up.