Roberto Soldic may already know who’s standing across from him next. Daniel Rodriguez hinted on Instagram that he’s fighting the Croatian next, a post that MMA account @DovySimuMMA flagged on X on Sunday with a blunt read: “Looks like DRod is fighting Soldic next.”
The timing lines up nicely. Earlier in the week Soldic put up an Instagram story of his own that read “We have a date. Time to go to work.” No opponent, no event, just a date he wasn’t sharing. Rodriguez’s post appears to fill in one of those blanks. Neither the matchup nor a card had been formally announced in any of the reports as of Sunday, so for now this is two fighters leaving breadcrumbs on social media.
Where Soldic stands
The 31-year-old made his UFC debut at UFC 332 at the Delta Center less than a month ago, beating Khaos Williams by unanimous decision on the main card. He used more of his toolbox than his knockout reputation suggests, though the fans who tuned in for a violent Robocop finish went home without one. Yahoo Sports figured he won’t land on any of the UFC’s three November events, which leaves December’s UFC Abu Dhabi or UFC 335 as options, along with several early 2027 cards already on the calendar.
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He’s also cashing in on the debut. MiddleEasy reported that Soldic signed a BC Game ambassador deal after the Williams win, with no financial terms disclosed.
The résumé is why a Rodriguez tease gets attention. Soldic went 12-2 before KSW, winning nearly all of those by knockout, then walked straight into a welterweight title fight at KSW 41 in 2017. He took the belt from Borys Makowski when Makowski’s corner stopped it after the third round, his seventh knockout win in a row. Dricus du Plessis beat him the following year in his first defense, and Soldic won the immediate rematch at KSW 45. Du Plessis didn’t lose again until he surrendered the UFC middleweight title to Khamzat Chimaev last year.
After that, Soldic ran the table in KSW. He defended the welterweight title twice and took the middleweight belt from Mamed Khalidov in 2021, his final KSW fight. Then came ONE Championship, where he went 1-1 with a no contest across several years, a stretch that felt like a waste of his prime.
Quick take
I love that Soldic wants to stay busy. The ONE years were a drought, and a second UFC fight within a few months of the first is exactly the pace a guy with his finishing history should be keeping. The Williams fight was smart and patient, but the man who knocked out seven in a row is in there somewhere, and he needs an opponent willing to stand in the pocket and find out. If Rodriguez is teasing it on his own Instagram, he sounds like a guy who wants that fight, which is half the battle in getting a real one. Now the UFC just has to put the date Soldic is sitting on onto an actual poster.
