Roberto Soldic was puzzled by how ‘easy’ Dricus du Plessis was to beat at UFC 319.
The ONE Championship star fought ‘DDP’ twice in 2018. ‘Robocop’ lost their first fight by knockout before getting his revenge on the recently usurped UFC middleweight champion six months later.
Roberto Soldic was the last man to beat Dricus du Plessis before he fought at UFC 319 on Saturday night.
Khamzat Chimaev mauled him for five rounds to pick up a lopsided unanimous decision victory and become the new 185lb king.
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Roberto Soldic reacts to UFC 319
On Monday, Roberto Soldic sat down for an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow.
The 21-4 (1NC) Croatian shared his thoughts on his old rival’s devastating UFC 319 defeat.
Soldic questioned the Du Plessis camp as he reacted to how ‘bad’ his wrestling defense was against Chimaev.
“I don’t know what they did in the Dricus fight camp about wrestling,” he said.
“It was so easy to take him down. You know, he couldn’t defend any takedown. Only in the fifth round, there was a good scramble.
“I don’t really know what Dricus did in the fight camp. The wrestling was bad from him.
“I know Chimaev was very strong, but he worked in the fifth round some scrambles.”
Soldic believes Du Plessis will bounce back after seeing his 11-fight winning run come to an end.
“Dricus will be back, for sure,” the 30-year-old added.
“He’s a tough, tough guy. He was in this position before with me, and he’ll be back, for sure.”
Roberto Soldic’s next fight
Roberto Soldic scored a Knockout of the Year contender against Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev at ONE 171.
Since then, he’s put his MMA career on hold to box a 48-year-old former two-weight world champion.
Tomasz Adamek won the WBC light heavyweight title as well as the IBF and The Ring magazine cruiserweight titles during his illustrious boxing career.
The Polish legend retired with a 53–6 record in 2018. Since then, he’s returned to combat sports against Mamed Khalidov, whom Soldic knocked out when they fought in MMA four years ago.
Adamek beat him too, winning by TKO when Khalidov suffered a hand injury in the third round of their February 2024 fight.
Soldic vs. Adamek will take place at FAME 27: KINGDOM in Gliwice, Poland, on September 6.