Marat Grigorian not surprised by teammate Roberto Soldic’s devilish KO in Qatar: “That left hand is destructive”

Nothing about Roberto Soldic's devastating highlight-reel finish in Qatar surprised Marat Grigorian. The Armenian striking veteran held the pads and traded tips with the Croatian knockout machine in the lead-up to his fight against Dagestani-born Turkish fighter Dagi Arslanaliev inside the Lusail Sports Arena last month.

And the multi-time kickboxing world champion admits he had that stunning finish on his bingo card right from the moment Soldic sized it up before he sent Arslanaliev to the shadow realm inside two minutes of their welterweight MMA contest.

"We sparred a lot, of course. And he needed to punch more with his left hand. And that’s what happened in the fight. We trained and worked on that. That left hand is destructive," Marat Grigorian told Sportskeeda MMA.

Soldic's wicked finish in the Middle East earned him his first promotional win. 'Robocop' suffered a knockout loss to Zebaztian Kadestam in his sophomore outing and had his debut against Murad Ramazanov end in a no-contest due to an unintentional illegal blow.

While nothing has been confirmed, the UFD gym superstar, who trains under Grigorian's longtime head coach, kickboxing specialist Nick Hemmers, is expected to challenge for his first MMA world title against two-division world champion Christian Lee in the near future.

---

Marat Grigorian steps back on the global stage at ONE 172

In less than a week, Marat Grigorian will be out to make it six wins from nine outings on martial arts' biggest stage against promotional newcomer Kaito Ono inside the Saitama Super Arena.

The three-time Glory kickboxing world champion hopes to hand the Japanese debutant a night to forget and gain a massive step in the right direction to another shot at the coveted ONE gold.

Fight fans can head to watch.onefc.com to catch ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang live this Sunday, March 23. The card will be available via pay-per-view.