Roberto Soldic’s long-awaited UFC debut got ugly fast, and then it got very good. Soldic was dropped twice by Kalinn Williams, better known as Khaos, in the first round on the UFC 332 main card Saturday in Salt Lake City. He recovered, controlled most of Rounds 2 and 3, and won a unanimous decision, according to Sherdog’s recap.
The win moves Soldic to 22-4 overall and 1-0 in the UFC. Williams falls to 16-6 with a 7-5 record inside the Octagon. MMA Junkie noted that Soldic had his own chances to end it in the back half of the fight. Williams survived each of them, and the knockout everyone expected from the Croatian never arrived.
Soldic didn’t sound bothered by that at the post-fight press conference. “I didn’t rush. I just took my win,” he said. He added that he felt no need to prove he could put somebody away, only that he could win and display his skills.
He also pushed back on the idea that Williams was a soft landing spot. Soldic pointed to Williams’ 11 fights in the UFC and his experience under the big lights, contrasting it with his own first night in the promotion. “I came here as a guest,” he said. He gave Williams credit for the first-round damage, too. “There’s a reason he’s a one-punch KO artist,” Soldic said.
This was Soldic’s first fight since February 2025, when he made his final appearance in One Championship. He said the layoff stretched to roughly a year and a half, and that getting three hard rounds in was the most valuable part of the night. He listed wrestling, ground and pound, a high kick and hooks from both hands as things he got to put on display, and said he believes he has the conditioning for five rounds because he never tired and kept moving forward.
What’s next
Soldic now settles into a crowded welterweight division carrying a résumé few debutants can match, including a knockout win over former UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis. The UFC’s own European account was already asking fans who he should face next, and Soldic’s answer was simply that he’d move on to the next one and see. No opponent or date has been announced.
Quick take
I’ll take this version of Soldic over a highlight-reel first-round finish, honestly. A guy coming off an 18-month layoff eats two knockdowns from a legitimate puncher in Round 1. The panicked version of that fighter swings for the fences in Round 2 and gets clipped again. Soldic slowed down and mixed in takedowns and ground and pound, and Williams spent the next 10 minutes reacting instead of hunting. That’s a real between-rounds adjustment, the kind you only see from someone who has been in deep water before. The defense in the opening five minutes needs work against the top 15, and he knows it. My pick for his next booking is a ranked welterweight, because he already proved he can win ugly at this level, and one more tune-up would tell us nothing new.
