KSW double champion Roberto Soldic explains signing with ONE over UFC: ‘ONE is something special’

Roberto Soldic is moving on from Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki (KSW) and is officially joining the ONE Championship roster as revealed today (Mon., Aug. 1, 2022).

In his nine fights with the promotion, “Robocop” established himself as one of the best talents outside of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Having just tested the waters of mixed martial arts (MMA) free agency, Soldic shared that he did receive an offer that was “good but nothing serious,” ultimately leading him to ONE Championship instead.

“It’s for me a better opportunity,” Soldic told MMA Fighting on The MMA Hour. “It’s the biggest promotion in the world. You know what happens to UFC stars when they go to ONE. They lose, they cannot take the ONE belt. So this makes me want to be a different fighter. I want to try and take this belt where UFC fighters failed. They don’t show up there. When I watched the live ONE show, I see different striking game, grappling game.

“I also went to many UFC events and ONE is something special, something different,” he continued. “True martial arts. So I want to try this organization and I will try to take all the belts because before KSW I had four boxing fights. I had a lot of fun in boxing and then to go MMA, I do everything, then after this KSW said we maybe do boxing. We have one Polish champion and it took so long so nothing happened. Only Mr. Chatri gave me this opportunity to be a true champion in martial arts.”

In the now former KSW Middleweight and Welterweight champion’s last two losses, he suffered defeat at the hands of current undefeated Bellator champion, Yaroslav Amosov, and UFC contender, Dricus Du Plessis, who Soldic (20-3) scored redemption against in an immediate rematch.

Soldic’s last time out saw him defeat Polish legend, Mamed Khalidov, to become Middleweight champion.