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Jakub Wiklacz | Flying Colors
Polish Bantamweight Is Proud To Represent His Nation In the Octagon, Where He Is Relishing The Tough Tests Being Thrown His Way
Jakub Wiklacz may only have one UFC fight under his belt, but he's already looking towards the top of the sport as he chases the toughest tests in the UFC bantamweight division.
Poland's Wiklacz made his Octagon debut back in October 2025 against former Bellator champion Patchy Mix. Given Mix's reputation among American MMA fans, many of the fans in attendance at UFC 320 were expecting the American fighter to prevail. But Wiklacz proved every bit Mix's equal as he pushed him all the way to the scorecards and claimed a split-decision victory.
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It was a tough introduction to the UFC, but one Wiklacz said he was happy with, even though he revealed he wasn't fully satisfied with his performance on the night.
“I think it showed a lot (about me), but not all,” he said.
“Because I know what mistakes I made, and I could have won this fight easily. I want to show a better version of myself in this fight.”
🗣️ "POLSKA GUROM!" #UFCVegas113@Jakub_Wiklacz ready to steal the show on Saturday! pic.twitter.com/t2B1fm0C9Z
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) February 4, 2026
While the fight with Mix was a very tense, cagey affair, Wiklacz is expecting a very different fight on Saturday night. He's set to take on Tajikistan's Muin Gafurov in a matchup he expects to be a much more dynamic encounter, and he can't wait to get in there and get started.
"He's a great fighter. He's a fighter who always does a great show," he explained.
"So it will be a different fight than the fight with Patchy, because the fight with Patchy was maybe slower a little bit, because Patchy was also kind of defensive in the fight. I think that Muin will be more offensive, and I'm prepared for that, and for sure, this fight will be faster."
Wiklacz arrived in the UFC with a glowing endorsement from one of Polish MMA's all-time greats. Former UFC women's strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk was a huge fan-favorite across Europe during her run as 115-pound queen, and she's been an integral part of Wiklacz's MMA story.
"I met Joanna many, many years ago when she was still fighting in stand-up sports, striking sports. So she hadn’t even started to train MMA," he recalled.
"She started to train MMA with me. So she showed me the way. She showed me the champion's mentality. She showed me how to do it and how prepared you need to be to make this a success."
That grounding has helped Wiklacz throughout his career as he made his name on the European scene before signing his UFC contract in 2025.
When the call eventually came for his Octagon debut, there was genuine excitement that the matchmakers had given him such a notable name and tough opponent for his first fight.
“I was sitting in my house, then Joanna (Jedrzejczyk) calls me, ‘We got the fight. It's Patchy,’ and I'm like, ‘Yeah, let's go!’" he remembered.
“It wasn't anything big for me, because if I wasn’t sure that I belonged here, I wouldn't do it. But I do belong here. I want to be a champion here, so it's my place, and I'm not afraid about hard tests.”
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MMA fans not well versed in the European scene may not have encoutered Wiklacz's name prior to his Octagon debut last year, but the 29-year-old is a seasoned veteran of 22 pro fights, many of which took place for Polish powerhouse promotion KSW, where he won the promotion's bantamweight title and defended it on three consecutive occasions before relinquishing the belt to join the UFC.
His time competing for his nation's biggest MMA organization has helped sharpen his skills as a fighter, while also giving him an early taste of big-arena fights. It's experience he plans to use to take himself as high as possible up the UFC's bantamweight ladder.
“For sure, it built me up as a fighter, complete fighter," he said.
"And for sure, it helped mentally, because I had a lot of fights which were five (minutes) for five (rounds). So that's a big difference, and the events were also small, and the biggest ones, so I'm prepared for everything, and it gave me this really, really precious experience."
That experience will be called upon against Gafurov, who has 26 career bouts and 20 victories to his name. It's a matchup Wiklacz knows will test his preparation, as well as his execution inside the Octagon.
“I know that Muin prepared for me. I know his weapons, so I will counter him,” said Wiklacz.
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“I’m a complete fighter, so I can fight him in striking, I can grapple him, and we can wrestle. So, I see it in different ways, but every way is a win for me.”
Saturday night's fight at the Meta APEX may be 5,800 miles from Wiklacz's hometown of Olsztyn, Poland, but there will be a little bit of home there with him on fight night, with fellow Polish athletes Michal Oleksiejczuk and Klaudia Sygula also set for action on the same fight card.
“I was always proud of myself that I can represent my country, and we have a big history in Poland, so I want to represent it proudly,” he said.
“Yeah! Three Polish fighters! And I think it's just the beginning of the invasion, the Polish invasion, in UFC!”
PURE POLISH POWER 🇵🇱 😤
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) February 2, 2026
It's a Poland takeover at #UFCVegas113 on Saturday! pic.twitter.com/X5lwqjoRN6
At the age of 29, Wiklacz is hitting his fighting prime just as he starts to hit elite-level competition. On paper, the timing of his UFC run couldn't be much better, and he's confident that if he can get past Gafurov on Saturday night, bigger things await in the shark tank that is the bantamweight division.
"You know, I'm focusing on winning the fight, and sometimes you can't just choose the way you will end a fight," he explained.
"But for sure, if I show my best techniques and show my best shape, and I have some luck, then I can get to the top 15 really fast."
UFC Fight Night: Bautista vs Oliveira took place live from Meta APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 7, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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