“He was training for that exact punch” - Marat Grigorian praises training partner Roberto Soldic for emphatic KO in Qatar

When you've been living the art for as long as Marat Grigorian has, you recognize skill as soon as you see it. And for Grigorian, he knows what knockout power, and so he wasn't the least bit surprised when Roberto Soldic put the lights out on Dagi Arslanaliev in Qatar.

The two heavy hitters share a coach in Nick Hemmers and have spent plenty of time together, training under the same roof.

"There’s not many MMA guys who are good in striking," he told Sportskeeda in an exclusive interview, "but he is one of them. I’m excited to see him back in the Circle."

That excitement evolved into admiration after watching 'Robocop' land a perfectly-timed punch, which Grigorian says was planned from the start.

"It is amazing," he said, describing Soldic's knockout power. "He has good timing as you can see in his knockout in Qatar. He was really sharp and I knew already that that fight wouldn’t take long. He was training for that exact punch."

---

“I’ll be on a different level” - Marat Grigorian vows to send upset-minded Kaito Ono back down to earth at ONE 172

Now that Roberto Soldic is done with a good show, it's Marat Grigorian's turn to put on a performance of his own. At ONE 172 in Japan, Grigorian will be going up against Japanese standout Kaito Ono.

When asked about his thoughts on his opponent, here's what he said:

“Kaito is a complete fighter. He’s really fast. He has really good speed. He has good skills. But I don’t think he’s had that many good opponents in his career. I think I’ll be on a different level than him."

ONE 172: Takeru vs Rodtang takes place tomorrow at 2 PM ICT. Fans in Canada and North America can catch the action via PPV on watch.onefc.com.