The ONE 171: Qatar card is evolving at a rapid pace, with another massive battle added this week.
ONE Championship will return to Doha’s Lusail Sports Arena on Thursday, 20th February, and the thrilling show is set to play host to a welterweight MMA firefight veteran powerhouse Dagi Arslanaliev and revered knockout artist Roberto Soldic.
A veteran of 11 MMA outings in ONE, Arslanaliev has continuously impressed in the promotion’s lightweight ranks.
The Turkish star recorded eight stoppages across his nine wins there, and he also made it to the final of the ONE Lightweight MMA World Grand Prix in 2019, where he lost out to divisional king Christian Lee by unanimous decision.
Arslanaliev hasn’t competed in the all-encompassing sport since his third-round knockout win over Timofey Nastyukhin at ONE: WINTER WARRIORS in December 2021, but he’s decided to make the move to welterweight in the hopes of shaking up the division.
However, with Soldic as his first fight at the heavier weight classification, that is going to be a significantly difficult task to achieve straight out of the gate.
“Robocop” arrived in ONE as the hottest free agent out of Europe. The former two-division KSW World Champion has 17 knockouts in his 20 career victories, so he was tipped to take the world’s largest martial arts organization by storm.
Unfortunately, Soldic has had a tough road so far. He made his debut against Murad Ramazanov at ONE on Prime Video 5, but the match ended in disappointment when it was ruled a no-contest. That was followed by a shock defeat to Zebaztian Kadestam at ONE Fight Night 10 in May 2023.
The Croatian star will be hoping that the third time’s the charm in Qatar, as he’s itching to show his true potential to ONE’s global fanbase. His career record shows he has the power to get the job done, but Arslanaliev will be just as hungry to impress in his new home.
So, their collision has all the makings of a fight-of-the-night contender at ONE 171.
