The Best Polish Fighters That The UFC Has Ever Seen
Anyone who is familiar with the country of Poland will know that it has a love for MMA like no other place on earth. Whilst the KSW promotion bosses the national scene, almost everyone who watches it, also follows the UFC.
Due to MMA being so popular in Poland, it goes without saying that the country produces an extremely high number of professional fighters. Many of these compete in various promotions around the world such as KSW, ONE, Bellator and Cage Warriors to name a few, before moving on to the higher ranks of UFC towards a championship belt and 6-figure paydays.
As martial arts such as judo, wrestling and boxing have all be historically popular in Poland, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why MMA has been propelled to the forefront of combat sports. Typically, most other countries will have a single sport which is popular, rather than various forms of fighting. This has also been true for USA which has boxing and wrestling as two extremely popular sports in both amateur and professional settings.
Like the majority of fighters from other countries, there have been a variety of Polish athletes which have made it to the UFC. Unfortunately most of these signings have resulted in being cut since the UFC is so competitive. However, even making it to the elite levels of the UFC is already a huge sucess, with some fighters posting winning records and winning championship belts.
Table of Contents
The Best Polish Fighters To Fight In The UFC
Jan Blachowicz
Without a doubt the most successful male Polish MMA fighter ever, Jan Blachowicz made the entire nation of Poland proud when he defeated Dominic Reyes to win the vacant UFC light heavyweight belt.
The career and rise of Blachowicz is even more impressive when you take a look at his record. Blachowicz was undoubtedly the king of KSW promotion for around 5 years amassing a 17-3 record. However, after this, Blachowicz was handed severe adveristy going 2-4 in his first 6 UFC fights. Obviously a 66% loss ratio is not good for a UFC fighter and many get cut from the promotion with such a record. Unlike other fighters before him, Blachowicz was able to turn this record around and beat some of the toughest fighters in the light heavyweight division such as Jacare Souza, Israel Adesanya and Luke Rockhold.
Even though Blachowicz lost his title to an ageing Glover Texeira, this is nothing to be ashamed of. The Cieszyn native is a legend in Poland for what he has already acheived and could lose every fight for the rest of his career without criticism.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Another Polish fighter with a fantastic record. Joanna Jedrzejczyk is the former UFC strawweight title holder and successfully defended her belt an impressive 5 times. Given that most fighters don’t actually make the cut for the UFC, to defend a title 5 times is really impressive.
Even before competing in MMA, Jedrzejczyk was already an established pro Muay-thai fighter with a record of 27 wins and 3 losses. Despite this record and being a fantastic striker, surprisingly Jedrzejczyk has only won 4 fights by stopping her opponent with punches and prefers to win by decision in strategic and tactical fights.
A well rounded fighter, JJ has never been submitted on the ground despite being a proficient striker. This displays her wrestling ability and experience in training in various disciplines.
Bart Palaszewski
Now a very private family man, Bart Palaszewski had his last professional fight in 2013 and is well remembered for his bright red mohawk. Palaszewski only had 4 total fights in the UFC in which he won 1 and lost 3. This does not however overshadow his career which ended with a 36-17 record including various wins, most of which came by guillotine choke and TKO stoppages.
It should also be noted that it’s possible Palaszewski also has several other professional wins under his belt since his original record shows he went 0-4. As MMA was still in it’s infancy during the early 2000’s, this is very likely the case.
Karolina Kowalkiewicz
Karolina Kowalkiewicz is better known as the Polish Princess to those who cannot pronounce Polish surnames very well. Even with her beautiful appearance, Kowalkiewicz has still amassed a 12-7 record with 5 of those wins coming in the UFC. Her most documented win comes against the fearsome Rose Namajunas who has beaten pretty much every other female fighter in the strawweight division.
Due to the higher level of competition, Kowalkiewicz is clearly not as dominant in the UFC as she was in KSW. This is very normal since there are very few fighters who can go from a national level fight promotion to fighting on the biggest stage in the world without losing.
Marcin Held
Primarily a submission grappler, Marcin Held became the youngest BJJ black belt in Poland aged just 21. This is displayed in his fight statistics very clearly as he has 14 wins by submission, many of which are leg locks.
After Held had ended his contract with Bellator and was signed by the UFC, he had a very impressive record of 22-4. UFC had likely hoped that this win streak would continue with Held becoming the leg lock specialist of the promotion. Unfortunately this did not happen and Held went 1-3 during his time within the UFC.
Since then however, Held has managed to recover and is currently 27-8 whilst plying his trade in the PFL. This is clearly not the most success a Polish fighter has had in the UFC, but the fact Held made it there in the first place and still has a very respectable win record is a testament to his overall ability.
Marcin Tybura
The Polish giant Marcin Tybura is a feared heavyweight and somewhat of a gatekeeper to the higher levels of the UFC. Tybura is a fearsome competitor and had a 13-1 record in the now defunct Russian promotion M1 Global, with his only loss being a doctors stoppage due to a very nasty cut.
Currently a fighter with a 22-7 record, Tybura is capable of beating almost anyone with his wrestling and knockout power on the ground. If this wasn’t enough Tybura has also proved that fighters can also study whilst competing, managing to get a doctorate in physical education from the university of Lodz in Poland.
Krzysztof Jotko
Perhaps one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC, Jotko has a 23-5 record which is very similar to the 22-6 of Conor McGregor. Of course the main difference between the two fighters is the personality and marketing, as well as Jotko seemingly fighting almost every fight for 3 rounds.
One of the most strange facts about Krzysztof Jotko is that he has been involved with 4 split decisions whilst fighting in the UFC. Split decisions are usually rare, which shows that Jotko is very close to his opponents in terms of ability. To cement this, only one of his fifteen UFC fights have been won by him stopping the opponent, for which he received a performance of the night bonus.
Tomasz Drwal
Tomasz “Gorilla” Drwal had a rather unforunate UFC career and certainly could have had his contract extended rather than being released after a 3-3 record in the promotion. The most controversial of these losses was to heel hook specialist and lunatic, Rousimar Palhares who injured Drwal by holding on to the submission after a clear tap.
The veteran Drwal has competed professionally in MMA since 2004 and currently holds a very respectable 22-6 fighting in KSW.
Damian Grabowski
Damian “Polish Pitbull” Grabowski has fought in well over 10 fight promotions including the UFC. His UFC career was short lived due to the fact that he lost all 3 fights. Even so, Grabowski still has a record of 22-5 which simply proves that the competition in the UFC is at a much higher level than other promotions.
