Roberto Soldic To Make ONE Championship Return Against Former Welterweight Champ

Roberto Soldic is hoping that his second foray in ONE Championship ends a little better as he takes on Zebaztian Kadestam at ONE Fight Night 10–the combat sports promotion's first-ever card to happen on U.S. soil.

The Bosnian-born Croatian mixed martial artist (MMA) signed with the Singapore-based fight promotion in August 2022, and many saw him as a major threat to Reinier de Ridder's two-division title reign–until the latter was dethroned by Anatoly Malykhin.

But as is always the case, he had to prove himself to ONE Championship fans and those making the fights which led to his debut bout against Murad Ramazanov at ONE Fight Night 5 in December 2022.

As the fight progressed with an interested crowd at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Philippines looking on, Ramazanov was able to trip up Soldic and pin him towards the cage.

At the 2:55 mark, Ramazanov fired an errant knee that landed square in the groin of Soldic and was rendered unable to continue with a loud crack being heard live on the broadcast.

"Robocop" was rendered unable to continue and the fight was eventually ruled a no contest.

As for his opponent in Kadestam, he has been with the promotion since May 2017 and has seen the heights of the welterweight division after claiming the then-vacant title in a knockout win over Tyler McGuire at ONE: Warrior's Dream in November 2018.

Kadestam went on to defend his title against Georgy Kichigin, but eventually lost to Kiamrian Abbasov in October 2019 by unanimous decision and was forced into a tight spot after losing his next two bouts to Gadzhimurad Abdullaev and Murad Ramazanov by submission and unanimous decision respectively.

Since then, "The Bandit" was able to turn his fate around after pulling off back-to-back knockout victories against Valmir da Silva Barbosa and Iuri Lapicus in 2022.

Because Kadestam had already earned his way to ONE welterweight gold, it would not be surprising to see whether this is the organization's way to see whether Soldic can live up to the hype he manufactured prior to signing.

Soldic has a winning streak of seven fights that dates back to October 2018, and beating Kadestam may be the big step that he needs to begin his journey towards title contention.

ONE Fight Night 10 takes place at 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado on May 5, and it will be headlined by Demetrious Johnson and Adriano Moraes' trilogy fight over the ONE flyweight title.

Muay Thai star Rodtang Jitmuangnon will also be putting up his flyweight title against Edgar Tabares in the co-main event.

Other fights currently slated for the event include Mikey Musumeci's flyweight submission grappling title defense against Osamah Almarwai and Sage Northcutt's long-awaited return to the fight game against Ahmed Mujitaba.