Manager Tomi Dijakovic Says Roberto Soldic Leaving All Doors Open After One More Fight in KSW

Thanks to his series of highlight knockouts, Roberto Soldic imposed himself as the most-interesting European fighter that’s soon to be a free agent. In his latest appearance, Soldic (20-3, 8-1 KSW) captured the 185-pound title after knocking out Mamed Khalidov in the second frame of the KSW 65 headliner. The UFD Gym standout became the second two-division champion in Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki’s history after Mateusz Gamrot. In a recent interview with Sherdog, Soldic’s manager Tomi Dijakovic discussed the Croatian fighter’s contractual situation: At the moment, Soldic has only one fight left on his contract. Dijakovic didn’t commit to anything about Soldic’s future in KSW and said they are open to any offers.

“He’s still under contract with KSW for one more fight,” he said. “We will see if we go now to negotiations to continue working with KSW or Roberto has a wish to move to another organization also with three letters. We will see. Roberto is still under contract with KSW.”

“Robocop” is currently on a seven-bout winning streak and has lost just once in his latest 15 appearances. During the latest KSW event, KSW 66, both former adversary Michal Materla and the freshly-crowned 205-pound titleholder Ibragim Chuzhigaev called Soldic out in their post-fight interviews.

“If KSW is looking for the fight against Chuzhigaev, we are ready,” Dijakovic added. “Roberto is ready. This is a possibility. After the fight against Mamed, Roberto said in a joke that he’s going for the third belt against [Tomasz] Narkun, so maybe there is also the possibility to fight Ibrahim now for the light heavyweight belt. We don’t know, we have to sit down with KSW, we have to talk with the owners, we have to talk with Lewandowski to see what they want but we are open for anything. We will see what Martin Lewandowski says, what KSW says. Roberto can fight Materla, he can fight Chuzhigaev, he fights a third opponent, we don’t know. First, we have to sit down with Martin Lewandowski and talk about this situation.”

Dijakovic also discussed his life-long project, the UFD Gym, which he started with his brother Ivan. He also shared some insight on some fighters participating in the next Professional Fighters League season, and more.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(01:44) His Holiday Season
(02:29) His family’s history
(05:04) Founding the UFD Gym in Dusseldorf
(06:20) Being a referral point for many Balkanian fighters
(09:40) The importance of having an open-mind mentality
(11:08) How the COVID-19 has impacted his business
(13:28) Commenting Soldic’s victory over Mamed Khalidov and his future in KSW
(16:10) What Soldic thinks about Chuzhigaev’s callout and aiming to become a three-division champion
(19:08) Having Gleison Tibau giving lessons to UFD Gym fighters
(20:50) His relationship with PFL
(22:55) Elite MMA Championship’s future
(25:38) How to watch EMC
(28:15) Handling boxing champions at the gym
(30:28) Outro

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog began in 2018 and now he covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.