Women’s bantamweight Klaudia Syguła joins the UFC this Saturday, making her debut against Melissa Mullins at UFC Vegas 100. The card has taken some hits, losing Cody Garbrandt and Ricky Turcios, and is headlined by Neil Magny vs. Carlos Prates.
Klaudia Syguła
Standing at five-foot-eight
Fighting at 135 lbs (bantamweight)
25-years-old
Fighting out of Łódź, Poland
Training out of Ankos MMA Poznań
A pro record of 6-1
2 KO/TKOs, 1 Submission
Pro comp; Juliana Miller
How Sygula will fare in the UFC
Syguła is taking this fight on short notice in a unexpected signing. Syguła has been active fighting every year and fighting in some custom bouts. She had a good amount of amateur fights as well going 5-4. Her only loss as a professional was her pro debut to PFL‘s Karolina Sobek. The loss isn’t aging well as Sobek has lost her last three. She doesn’t have any notable wins and half of her losses are to fighters with losing records.
On the feet, Syguła is more volume than anything. That volume doesn’t mean a whole lot if you don’t have any power. And while Syguła does lack power, her hand speed is pretty slow as well. She’s basically touching her opponents and in a ruleset that favors damage more than anything, Syguła isn’t dealing that. Defensively she’s slow and doesn’t move her head. She stands tall so she’s open to the body shots.
Syguła is a BJJ purple belt and it’s where she does her best work. She doesn’t have any traditional wrestling skills. She does do a great job of using her cage wrestling to get the takedowns. Syguła does very well at creating trips and using knee traps to get the fight down. She’s capable of finding a submission or landing enough GNP for the TKO. So far she’s easily been able to move through guard into a dominant position but mostly against girls that are clueless off her back. What’s going to hurt her is her lack of physicality. She can move well on the mat but when it comes to holding a position she has trouble. That also shows in her takedown defense.
Overall, I see Sygula struggling to get wins in the UFC. She is only 25 and has a skillset to build off of. She is better at 135 compared to 145 where she was fighting at. Even at 135 it just seems like she’d be at a physical disadvantage against almost anyone. Syguła needed more time outside the UFC and I think it will show in her UFC run.
How she matches up against Mullins
Mullins is a heavy 135er (missed weight last fight, and for this one) and that’s not great for Sygula. I only see Sygula winning if she can catch Mullins in a sub. On the feet Mullins is going to be more physical and what she lands will be harder. Sygula will want to use her grappling but Mullins, again, is likely to be more physical and that is where Mullins is best.
