Kickboxing star Rade Opacic willing to transition to Muay Thai to challenge two-sport champ Roman Kryklia

Following his victory at ONE 165 in Japan, Serbian knockout artist Rade Opacic is willing to make the move to Muay Thai if it means a shot at the reigning heavyweight champion, Roman Kryklia.

Riding the momentum of back-to-back wins, Opacic was determined to add a third-straight win to his resume when he met Iranian powerhouse Iraj Azizpour inside Tokyo’s Ariake Arena. After three rounds of entertaining back-and-forth action, Opacic was declared the winner via unanimous decision.

The win moved him to 7-1 under the ONE Championship banner and likely put him in a prime position to challenge for a world title.

Speaking with Sportskeeda MMA, Rade Opacic revealed that while he prefers to compete in kickboxing, he’s no stranger to the art of eight limbs and is more than willing to make the transition if it means getting a crack at 26 pounds of ONE gold.

“Well, I'm a kickboxer, you know, K-1 style fighter, so, you know, that's what I want to do,” Opacic said. “I would like to do but also I had Muay Thai fights. So, you know, it’s up to the boss. For me, it's just to fight.”

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Is Rade Opacic up next for Roman Kryklia?

No official announcement have been made, but in all likelihood, Rade Opacic’s opponent will likely be reigning two-sport ONE world champion Roman Kryklia. The Ukrainian currently holds both the light heavyweight kickboxing and heavyweight Muay Thai world titles on top of winning the ONE Heavyweight Kickboxing World Grand Prix tournament last year.

As for Iraj Azizpour, the one-time title challenger will go back to the drawing board after coming up short in his last two outings.

Following the events of ONE 165, is Rade Opacic vs. Roman Kryklia the fight to make?

If you missed any of the action or want to relive an epic night in ONE Championship history, the ONE 165 replay can be watched on demand via watch.onefc.com.