Roman Kryklia is aiming to conquer a new sport in ONE Championship this weekend, but he’s also working on loftier goals away from competition.
On U.S. Primetime this Friday, December 8, the Ukranian powerhouse will battle Alex Roberts for the inaugural ONE Heavyweight Muay Thai World Championship in the main event of ONE Fight Night 17: Kryklia vs. Roberts.
The all-Muay Thai card will be held inside the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, and will be broadcast live and for free to fans in North America via Prime Video.
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Roman Kryklia and Chingiz Allazov partner together to open a gym
The Gridin Gym representative revealed that he mostly trained in his new gym in Dubai – Champs Belts by Gridin – for this fight camp. In an interview with ONE, he outlined how he had always planned to build a gym, but it only recently went from vision to reality.
“My team and I have been planning to do this for a long time. A year ago, our friend and now business partner said that he had the same dream – to open a fight gym. We started working on it a year ago, and it’s been six months since the project started to take shape. Today, we have opened it. Everything is ready,” Kryklia said.
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His team behind the new gym includes best friend and reigning ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion, Chingiz Allazov, and the light heavyweight kickboxing king discussed the gym’s name and why they chose Dubai as the location for their project in the interview.
“Chingiz and I have won all the best belts in world of kickboxing so far. It is reflected in the name. We added ‘by Gridin’ for people to understand who is behind the project,” Kryklia said.
“Dubai is now a very promising city. A center where everyone is flocking to. It offers a great deal of opportunities for development in all areas of business. Now, we will be based mostly here. It will be our training base for future fights.”
What makes his training facility special?
Kryklia shared that his new training center will be the first of many to open, as they plan on creating a worldwide network.
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For now, though, he says the motivation for establishing Champs Belts by Gridin is to popularize the sport and allow people to learn from elite trainers.
“One of the main objectives of opening this gym is to popularize our sport. Everyone who wants to learn kickboxing and Thai boxing will find a place there. People who have some experience in martial arts and top pro athletes will have something for them, too,” Kryklia said.
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“We will organize seminars, training camps, and masterclasses. We are focused on different clients – from sports enthusiasts to pro athletes. The atmosphere in the gym is very lively.
“We do both individual training and group training – it’s a big project, and we have high hopes for the future.”