Karolina Kowalkiewicz News

Tom Taylor - February 25, 2021

Former UFC strawweight title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz says she has struggled with depression and suicidal ideation in the past. Kowalkiewicz, a native of Poland, is a member of the UFC strawweight roster. Speaking on Instagram on February 23, Poland’s Day of Combatting Depression, Kowalkiewicz opened up on her mental health struggles, and revealed that she’s battled depression and suicidal ideation previously.

Harry Kettle - February 25, 2020

Justin Gaethje has sent a message of support to Karolina Kowalkiewicz following her tough loss this past weekend at UFC Auckland. The Auckland card at Spark Arena certainly made headlines for a variety of reasons and while many of those came from the main event, there’s also a lot to be said for the rest of the card. One of the biggest stories coming out of the event was Kowalkiewicz’s loss to Yan Xiaonan via unanimous decision, mainly due to the injuries she sustained.

Adam D Martin - February 23, 2020

UFC women’s strawweight Karolina Kowalkiewicz says she will undergo an eye operation after suffering a broken facial bone at UFC Auckland. Kowalkiewicz lost a lopsided unanimous decision to Yan Xiaonan on the main card of UFC Auckland. It’s her fourth straight loss following defeats to Alexa Grasso, Jessica Andrade, and Michelle Waterson. Kowalkiewicz was beaten to the punch nearly the entire fight by Xiaonan and was really wearing it at the end of 15 minutes.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2019

Last weekend, on the undercard of UFC 238, former UFC strawweight title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz lost a decision to Mexico’s Alexa Grasso. With this loss, the Polish star fell on to a three-fight skid — which has led her to confront what she calls a “painful” reality. While Karolina Kowalkiewicz intends to continue fighting and putting on fun fights for her fans, she says she believes that her best days are behind her.

Chris Taylor - March 30, 2019

A key women’s strawweight bout between fab favorites Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Michelle Waterson took place on tonight’s UFC Philadelphia main card. Karolina Kowalkiewicz enters the octagon for the first time since suffering a devastating knockout loss to Jessica Andrade at UFC 228.

Tom Taylor - March 28, 2019

If you look at the lineup for this weekend’s UFC Philadelphia card, you’ll see that Michelle Waterson is set to battle former strawweight title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Ahead of this compelling fight, the UFC has been referring to Kowalkiewicz as the “Polish Princess.” She says the UFC made this nickname up for her, and she didn’t find out about it until she saw it in UFC Philadelphia promotional material.

Drake Riggs - January 8, 2019

Today the UFC announced that their second event on the ESPN channel will be taking place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event got its first bout in a strawweight affair between top prospects Alexa Grasso (10-2) and Marina Rodriguez (10-0-1) after it was moved from UFC Fortaleza due to a Rodriguez injury.

Tom Taylor - September 10, 2018

Last weekend, in the co-main event of UFC 228, Poland’s Karolina Kowalkiewicz stepped into the cage with Brazil’s Jessica Andrade. The expectation was that, if Kowalkiewicz won this fight, she’d receive the next crack at UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, who she holds a victory over. Unfortunately for Karolina Kowalkiewicz and her many fans, however, this fight did not go the was she planned. Instead, she was clubbed to a brutal, first-round knockout loss by her fearsome adversary Jessica Andrade.

Tom Taylor - August 29, 2018

Former UFC strawweight title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz believes that the winner of her UFC 228 fight with Jessica Andrade should be next in line for UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas. In her eyes, the rest of the world probably agrees with this statement. “I think this fight against Jessica Andrade will be a title eliminator,” Karolina Kowalkiewicz said in an interview with Poland’s MMANews.pl. “Not only do I think this way, but also the rest of the world.

Drake Riggs - June 26, 2018

Now that the Rose Namajunas vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk saga is over, for now anyway, the division must move on! And it appears to be making its first steps. A fight between top strawweight contenders, Jessica Andrade and Karolina Kowalkiewicz that was originally slated to be taking place at UFC on Fox 28 in February…clearly did not happen.

Tom Taylor - May 16, 2018

Back in April, in the buildup to UFC 223, Conor McGregor went berserk in Brooklyn, NY, throwing a dolly through a shuttle bus window in a crazed search for his rival Khabib Nurmagomedov. Unsurprisingly, the Irishman’s rampage left the bus’s passengers — a host of UFC 223 fighters — quite shaken. Some, like Ray Borg and Michael Chiesa, were even injured. In the wake of this incident, McGregor has issued apologies to a number of the fighters that were affected by his rampage. One of the fighters to receive an apology was UFC strawweight champ Rose Namajunas — though she wasn’t having it. Another was UFC strawweight contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz, who seems to have taken the Irishman’s attempt to make amends a little better.

Tom Taylor - April 9, 2018

On Thursday afternoon, UFC lightweight star Conor McGregor showed up at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, NY, and launched a ridiculous attack on a shuttle bus carrying a number of the fighters on the UFC 223 bill. The Irishman’s bizarre rampage crescendoed with him throwing a hand truck through the back-right window of the bus, causing injuries to two UFC 223 fighters, who were ultimately forced off the card as a result.  While many passengers on the bus were rightfully disturbed by McGregor’s assault, strawweight star Karolina Kowalkiewicz, who authored a dominant defeat of Felice Herrig on the UFC 223 undercard, was not. Why? Well, because she’s from Poland.

Drake Riggs - March 15, 2018

UFC 223 on April 7th showcases two of the highest level strawweight battles one could ask for. In the co-main event, we have the rematch of the epic upset from UFC 217 when Rose Namajunas knocked out the reigning champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk in the very first round. But before that, we get a battle of contenders looking to inch their way that much closer to a title shot. And for Karolina Kowalkiewicz, it would be her second crack at gold.

Drake Riggs - February 5, 2018

Two of Poland’s finest fighters across all divisions happen to be the former strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk and the former challenger, Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Since they met each other in the octagon at UFC 205, they have each gone 1-1 in their two fights that followed. Ironically enough, each of their upcoming bouts take place on the same night at UFC 223 in Brooklyn, New York on April 7.

Drake Riggs - January 24, 2018

Only one woman has gone the distance with both the UFC Strawweight champion, Rose Namajunas and the former champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk…and that’s Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Kowalkiewicz earned her first and only UFC title shot by defeating Namajunas by split decision at UFC 201 in July of 2016. This led to her taking on the then champion, Joanna at the big, inaugural UFC New York card, UFC 205. Unfortunately for Kowalkiewicz she would drop a unanimous decision to the champion then go on to lose to Claudia Gadelha before regaining another win this past October. Being so familiar with both, Kowalkiewicz obviously has an opinion. When asked by MMARocks her thoughts on the upcoming Rose vs Joanna rematch at UFC 223 and who she thought would win, this is what she had to say:

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2018

On April 7, the UFC will make its second stop in Brooklyn, New York with UFC 223. Although this card is still some distance away, it’s already coming together. Over the last few days, three new bouts have been targeted for the event, and they’re all solid additions. The first of these new matchups, which was reported by FloCombat, will occur in the lightweight division, where Al Iaquinta is expected to battle Paul Felder.

Justin Golightly - October 28, 2017

After the absolute bloodbath of a fight between her and Claudia Gadelha, Jessica Andrade was pushed to the number one contender slot in the UFC strawweight rankings. It would have been a four-fight win streak for Andrade, had she not have fought Joanna Jedrzejczyk just before. However, that’s a rematch that is just within arm’s length for the young Brazilian. Another shot at that belt would get a lot closer if Jessica Andrade beats third-ranked former title challenger, Karolina Kowalkiewicz. “I was expecting more of Karolina [Kowalkiewicz]. I expected her to knock [Esquibel] out, something like that. Her opponent had just gotten into the UFC and she was in the top five. She should have shown more spirit to finish the fight. I think it would be a really good fight [with me and Kowalkiewicz]. That’s what I’m after: tough fights. My goal is to fight those who are at the top to get a chance to fight for the belt. Karolina is a good choice. She was not hurt. She might be able to fight again soon.”

Tom Taylor - October 22, 2017

Yesterday afternoon, in the co-main event of the UFC’s exciting stop in Gdansk, Poland, Polish strawweight contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz picked up a nice decision win over former Invicta star Jodie Esquibel. In the wake of this impressive win, Kowalkiewicz made a clever callout of surging Brazilian contender Jessica Andrade. Speaking at the UFC Gdansk post-fight presser, Kowalkiewicz repeated this callout of Andrade, explaining that it stems in part from Andrade’s previous claims that she avoided a fight with her.