Roman Kryklia and Murat Aygun express excitement about their upcoming meeting

Roman Kryklia and Murat Aygun will finally meet in the Circle at ONE: Full Circle on February 25 after a year of trying to make the bout happen.

Multiple factors beyond their control have prevented them from putting a fight together, but now the stars have aligned for them. During their faceoff interview, Kryklia expressed his delight at returning to action against a worthy challenger.

“I’m looking forward to it. I was waiting for a long time, more than one year. I couldn’t show what I can do in the cage, so now I have a great chance with a good opponent and I’m looking forward, yeah,” Kryklia said.

Aygun was originally set to debut against Kryklia, but the latter had to pull out of the match due to COVID health and safety protocols. As a result, he faced Anderson Silva in his promotional debut in December 2020’s ONE: Big Bang. He proceeded to show that he was the real deal, defeating the hard-hitting Silva through three rounds of action.

Not to be outdone, Roman Krkylia went to action a couple of weeks later and cemented his dominance in the division by putting a halt to Andrei Stoica’s three-fight winning streak.

Since then, the Kryklia-Aygun bout has run into several unforeseen roadblocks. As such, Aygun could only echo his opponent’s excitement for the fight finally happening, saying:

“We’re waiting one year for this fight, every time it’s cancelled, but this time it’s gonna happen. I’m happy to fight this time.”

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Roman Kryklia and Murat Aygun focus on the bright side

Apart from the physical demands of training for a fight, Roman Kryklia and Murat Aygun both shared that it can also be mentally straining.

With multiple fights being called off, Roman Kryklia shared that instead of wallowing in disappointment, he focused on the bright side of things.

“It’s difficult, of course. When you prepare for something then it’s cancelled, I was disappointed. But I found some good sides of this case. I can put time to prepare for the event. Now, I’ve had a long time to prepare for this, so I see only pluses and good sides.”

Aygun agreed, saying he made the most out of the long preparation and is now more equipped for battle against Kryklia.

“When your fight is cancelled, you must prepare anew. It’s not nice. What’s nice is you have more time to train. You can do more, you can be more tactical. It’s no problem, you train more, you learn more about yourself.”

On Friday, both men will be able to showcase the result of their preparations as they go to war at ONE: Full Circle.