A pair of former world champions are set to face off at ONE Championship’s U.S. debut this May.
Ex-KSW champ Roberto Soldic (20-3, 1NC) will appear in his sophomore outing for the Asian promotion when he takes on former ONE welterweight champion Zebaztian Kadestam (14-7) at ONE Fight Night 10 on May 5, 2023. The event takes place at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado.
Promotion officials announced the booking on Monday.
Soldic was a major free agent acquisition for ONE Championship last year, and made his promotional debut at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December. Unfortunately, an accidental knee to the groin left him unable to continue against Murad Ramazanov, with the fight ruled a No Contest as a result.
Prior to the No Contest, Soldic had won seven straight fights. He’s a two-time KSW welterweight champ, losing his belt to current UFC star Dricus Du Plessis in 2018 then winning it back in an immediate rematch. At the end of his KSW run, Soldic captured the promotion’s middleweight title as well.
Kadestam first challenged for ONE Championship gold against Ben Askren in 2017, losing via second round TKO after being dragged to the ground. In the wake of Askren retiring (and later jumping to the UFC), Kadestam won the vacant belt against Tyler McGuire a year later, and defended it once, opposite Georgiy Kichigin.
ONE Fight Night 10 will be headlined by the rubber match in the trilogy between Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Adriano Moraes, with the ONE Championship flyweight title on the line. The following match-ups have been reported for the event:
- Demetrious Johnson (c) vs. Adriano Moraes — for the ONE flyweight championship
- Rodtang (c) vs. Edgar Tabares — for the ONE flyweight Muay Thai championship
- Mikey Musumeci (c) vs. Osamah Almarwai — for the ONE flyweight submission grappling championship
- Sage Northcutt vs. Ahmed Mujtaba
- Stamp Fairtex vs. Alyse Anderson
- Reinier de Ridder vs. Tye Ruotolo — submission grappling
- Aung La Nsang vs. Fan Rong
- Kairat Akhmetov vs. Reece McLaren
- Jackie Buntan vs. Diandra Martin — Muay Thai
- Roberto Soldic vs. Zebaztian Kadestam
