"Hardest left hand in the world" - UFC champ Dricus Du Plessis applauds old rival Roberto Soldic's brutal KO of Dagi Arslanaliev

ONE welterweight MMA star Roberto Soldic produced an early favorite for ONE Championship's knockout of the year at ONE 171: Qatar last Thursday, Feb. 20, that even had his former rival and current UFC middleweight king Dricus Du Plessis complimenting his handiwork.

The world's largest martial arts promotion shared Soldic's meteoric one-punch knockout of Dagi Arslanaliev on Instagram. The caption of the post read:

"One shot, one kill! 🎯 Who saw this coming from Roberto Soldic?"

In the comments section, Du Plessis commented:

"Wow!! Well done @soldicmma Hardest left hand in the world I'm talking from experience."

The Croatian MMA megastar gratefully replied:

"@dricusduplessis thanks champ 🤝"

Screenshot of their interaction. [ONE Championship/Instagram]

The experience that 'Stillknocks' was referring to was when he fell victim to Soldic's left hand during their time under the KSW banner in October 2018.

After losing to Du Plessis via TKO in April of that year, 'Robocop' returned the favor and made the South African megastar his 12th career knockout victim. Soldic still holds the distinction of being the only man to have ever knocked out Du Plessis.

---

Roberto Soldic declares he is finally back to form

Roberto Soldic breathed a heavy sigh of relief after making short work of the battle-tested Dagi Arslanaliev at ONE 171 in light of his early struggles as a ONE athlete.

His trademark confidence emerged during the post-fight interview with ONE commentator Mitch Chilson, where he said:

"When I'm like this nobody can beat me. Nobody. When I'm like this nobody can beat me in this cage. If I'm good, nobody can beat this Robocop. I'm back, guys."

The full replay of ONE 171 is available to all fans who purchased the pay-per-view at watch.onefc.com.