Introduction
Saturday, May 18th, Croatian welterweight prospect Roberto Soldic will be in action in Poland, where he will be looking to continue his impressively violent ways against Krystian Kaszubowski. He will be looking to score yet another win, as Soldic marches back toward retaining the KSW Champion. Soldic represents UFD Gym Dusseldorf, an underrated camp out of Germany. Let’s take a closer look at this prospect as this week’s “Prospect Spotlight.”
Strengths
Knockout Machine: Watch Roberto Soldic highlights on YouTube. I guarantee you will be entertained. The man is an absolute knockout machine on the feet, endangering one’s consciousness with ever shot landed. He has technique, but he prefers to wing heavy punches that land huge amount of hit points when the land. He goes to off you, not score points. He winds up a lot on the punches, so they can be a bit easier to detect. However, that does provide massive amounts of KO power. He doesn’t even need to wind up like that, though, as seen in his fight with Vinicius Bohrer, where he hit him with a short one-punch shot. He also throws in combos, putting together kicks and punches well. Lastly, his killer instinct when he lands a big shot is on point. He knows when his opponent is hurt and pounces with vigor to end the bout.
Strength: Soldic’s knockout power likely comes from the fact that he’s an absolute specimen and brute (even though yes, he does have a boxing background). He’s a physically imposing man who shows great strength wherever he fights. He has strong hips and takedown defense, allowing him to refute opponent’s shots. He has a very strong core from his judo background, which also makes him strong in the clinch and getting top position. When he gets top position, he generates a ton of power in his ground-and-pound, even if he’s stuck in his opponent’s guard. Just watch the Borys Mankowski fight. Few men can match brute strength with Soldic.
Needs Improvement
Prone to Counterstrikes: Even though Soldic is a terrifying striker, he does have a hole in that part of a game in that he is prone to getting caught on the chin himself. Because he does tend to wing punches and be too aggressive at times, he opens himself up to counterstrikes from his opponents (especially punches). He leaves his chin up when he throws, and because he throws his punches in bunches, his hand defense can be exposes. Watch his first bout with Dricus du Plessis. The end of the fight comes as a result of Soldic moving in with heavy punches and his chin in a spot that du Plessis can catch him. His South African counterpart does in fact nail him, which puts him down from a combination of power, accuracy and the fact Soldic’s momentum moved him into it. That led to Soldic getting rocked and finished. He needs to be a tad smarter with his defense and not be too overeager on offense.
Outlook
UFC Fight Bonus Machine: Roberto Soldic could certainly be a contender, especially with how advanced he is at 24 years of age. Not only is he skilled and violent, but he is damn good. I don’t know if he’d ever challenge for the UFC title, but he’d be in the running at some point if he came over to the world’s largest MMA promotion. Not only that, but he’d likely have a lucrative run with how big of a highlight reel machine he is. With his entertaining knockouts, the UFC would be shelling out fight night bonus money to Soldic. I would love to see this guy in the UFC welterweight division whenever he frees up from KSW, who is likely paying him handsomely.
MMA Intel 