Klaudia Sygula hasn’t been on the roster for long, but there have been more ups and downs than many UFC athletes encounter in their entire careers.
If the name isn’t ringing a bell, Sygula (6-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) gets why. Her debut wasn’t great. She knows it, but says that wasn’t her.
Even as she tries to explain the circumstances of her second-round TKO loss to Melissa Mullins in November, she cuts herself off at even the slightest chance her reasoning could be construed as an excuse. But she pushes through, because a story is a story.
Three weeks before that November fight, is when the UFC offer – her dream – came true.
Sygula was initially an economics major. She’s smart, her grades were good, and school was the priority. When she first signed up for a karate gym, the coach scolded her because of her lack of dedication. But her passion was in the classroom until MMA took over her life and became her obsession.
So when that offer came through from Mick Maynard, Sygula couldn’t say no. But the time period leading up to that seven-and-a-half minutes inside the cage was a fight within itself.
“To be honest, my debut was not good,” Sygula recently told MMA Junkie. “One day after I got the UFC contract, my coach ended up in prison. It was not an easy situation for me.”
Renowned Polish coach Andrzej Koscielski was arrested in October. His arrest was reportedly linked to a 22-year-old murder cold case. Koscielski remains in prison.
“He’s still in prison. It is not an easy situation,” Sygula said. “I think I shouldn’t talk more about it. At this moment, it was really hard for me because I was left alone and I had to rely only on myself, so it was not easy.”
It’s never ideal to have to find a new training home as a fighter. But three weeks before your big break fight? Even worse.
Sygula’s boyfriend and another relatively inexperienced training partner made the trek over to the United States – but it’s a trip that almost didn’t even happen. It wasn’t until Tuesday of fight week that Sygula secured her travel papers.
“I took this fight as a replacement,” Sygula said. “I wasn’t in good shape. I’m not looking for excuses, but the situation was not easy. I didn’t have visa. It was hard to take a replacement. I had 12 kilograms to cut. It was not a good camp and I was not in good shape – and this was my debut in the UFC. I didn’t show myself and it hurt the most.”
“I got my fight three weeks before, but I got my visa on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I had flight. On Thursday, I was in Las Vegas. I had to make my weight. On Friday, was the weigh-ins and Saturday, the fight. At that moment, I thought, ‘It’s not important for me. I’m ready and everything is OK.'”
The loss was a disappointment for Sygula, who had to reroute her whole career in the wake of victory. However, as fate as it, Sygula wasn’t the only Polish fighter on her debut card. Former UFC title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz fought on the same card and lost. The two met up in the hotel afterward, and Sygula found the positive change she was in dire need of.
“(Kowalkiewicz) came with her coach Marcos ‘Parrumpa’ (De Matta) and that is how I met him,” Sygula said. “Unfortunately, we both lost our fights. After the event, we met together in her room to talk about this, to cry together, to eat something. I talked a lot with her coach, with coach Marcos. He convinced me to come to Florida, to ATT. He said one important sentence that stayed with me, which was if I want to be a professional fighter, I have to have professional people around me. I was thinking a lot about this. I thought that I have to change something if I want to stay in the UFC, if I want to change something. I made the decision that I’d come to ATT for the first time to see how it works, to see how their coaches are and how their sparring partners are.”
For this camp, Sygula found herself brushing shoulders, grappling, and sparring with the likes of Dakota Ditcheva, Kayla Harrison, Bia Mesquita, Yana Santos, and others. She enters her second promotional appearance Saturday at UFC on ABC 8 in Baku, Azerbaijan feeling like a totally different fighter.
“I’m sure they will see me, ‘real’ Klaudia,” Sygula said. “Because in the first fight, I didn’t show anything. As I’ve said before, the UFC deserves more. The people, my supporters, they deserve more. I hope that this time, they will see, ‘real’ Klaudia. I think that will be a better version of me.”
