“He’s no threat” – Roman Kryklia thinks Murat Aygun will be ‘easy work’ for him

Roman Kryklia will defend the ONE light heavyweight kickboxing world championship against Murat Aygun at ONE: Full Circle on Friday. Ahead of their bout, Kryklia appears confident that he will leave the Singapore Indoor Stadium with the world title still wrapped around his waist.

The Ukrainian champion stands at a towering 200 centimeters tall, which is uncommon for his weight class. Kryklia knows this for a fact and has found success by exploiting it in every match possible.

“I’m very tall for the weight class and I use that to my advantage. Shorter guys can’t control the fight because they can never get anywhere near me. I know his style, it’s going to be easy work”

Aygun’s body of work seems to differ. The Dutch-Turkish fighter owns a 17-1 professional kickboxing record, including a 5-0 record in championship bouts. The only loss on his record is a doctor’s stoppage in a fight that he was controlling.

In his ONE Championship debut, Aygun was originally set to face Kryklia, but the fight was pulled because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Instead, heavy hitter Anderson Silva stepped in as a replacement to face Aygun. The 33-year-old made the most out of his moment and proceeded to dominate Silva through three rounds of action.

However, Roman Kryklia is unfazed by any of his opponent’s records or claims.

“I don’t care about his record, he’s just another fighter in front of me. He’s no threat. My plan is to control the entire bout. It doesn’t matter to me what he says. Once we’re in the Circle, none of his talk can help him,” said the champion.

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Roman Kryklia believes he has superior weapons

Roman Kryklia’s world title did not magically fall on his lap. He fought to be on top of the division. The champion believes that his weapons are also far superior to Murat Aygun’s.

“I’ve got better speed, reach, and distance control. It’s the reason I’m the champ,” said Kryklia.

In his two appearances in the Circle, Kryklia has used these weapons with great success. He handled his business with Tarik Khbabez in November 2019’s ONE: Age of Dragons to claim the inaugural world title for the division. Khbabez, who stands close to Aygun’s height, suffered a TKO via the three-knockdown rule.

Two weeks after Aygun’s debut, Krkylia defended his world title against Andrei Stoica. The Romanian was riding a three-bout winning streak prior to the meeting. However, Kryklia continued his own unbeaten run by defeating Stoica.

Kryklia also said he would not be surprised by what Aygun brings as he goes for another win:

“I think Aygun is going to rely on his heavy hooks. But I’m going to completely dominate every aspect of this fight.”

Kryklia is currently on a 10-fight win streak. The 30-year-old last lost in 2018 and only has seven defeats in his career.