"He will utilize his strong legs" - Roman Kryklia wary of Alex Roberts’ destructive kicking power

Reigning ONE light-heavyweight kickboxing world champion and ONE heavyweight kickboxing World Grand Prix champion Roman Kryklia is looking to add more gold to his resume at ONE Fight Night 17 on December 8.

The Ukrainian powerhouse will revisit the heavyweight division to fight ONE newcomer Alex Roberts for the inaugural ONE heavyweight Muay Thai world title.

Kryklia is on an impressive 13-fight winning streak, with his last three outings being KO/TKO wins. Speaking to ONE Championship, the 32-year-old spoke about how he thought the bout with Roberts would go:

"I think that he will be trying to close the distance, so he can get to a more comfortable distance for himself. He will try to not let me work from a distance, to develop more speed. He will utilize his strong legs – his left leg is especially good."

Alex Roberts bears some physical resemblance to Roman Kryklia's most recent opponent, the hulking Iranian Iraj Azizpour. With this in mind, the tall and lengthy Ukrainian world champion will know what to do in order to deal with the raging 'Viking' come fight night.

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Roman Kryklia says he's "always ready" for a 5-round war

Despite having nearly all his wins come by way of knockout, Kryklia admitted that he never looked for the finish. Instead, he stuck to increasing the intensity of his attacks across 5 rounds - until his opponent broke.

He told ONE:

"I don’t like to wait in the ring. I like to be very aggressive, but I am always ready for all five rounds. So nobody knows how my fight will finish, even me."

Roman Kryklia believes that the best way to score a knockout is to never force it and just let it come naturally. Look to see him use his controlled sense of chaos to get the highlight-reel finish come December 8.

ONE Fight Night 17 transpires inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium and will air live on US Primetime free of charge for existing Prime Video subscribers in North America.