Martyna Caruk Wins MMA World Title on Senior Debut

A Final Against a Proven Champion
Caruk's opponent on Saturday was Finland's Isla Fono, and it was never going to be easy. Fono won the lightweight world title in 2025 and was also nominated for IMMAF's Senior Female Athlete of the Year award this year. In other words, Caruk was facing someone who had already been at the top.

The bout went the distance. When the scorecards came in, all three judges had it 29-28 for the Polish fighter, giving her a unanimous decision. It was her third win of the event, as she took all three of her fights in Georgia. This was also her first outing for the senior team picked by MMA Polska, and the Polish MMA association marked the achievement with a social media post.

Roots Shared with a UFC Great
Caruk's story has a famous connection. She trains at Arrachion Olsztyn, a club in northeastern Poland, which is the same place where Joanna Jędrzejczyk had her first professional MMA fights before moving on to the UFC. Jędrzejczyk later held the UFC strawweight title from 2015 to 2017 and defended it five times. In 2024, she became the first Polish woman inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Poland's Wider Medal Count
Nearly 700 athletes from around the world gathered in the Georgian capital from November 1 to 7, and Poland left with one gold, three silver and one bronze. Wiktoria Pleśniak won silver in the women's 47.6 kg category after losing her final to Russia's Daria Kuznetsova. She had also taken silver at this year's European Championships. In the junior competition, Dominik Sitko and Szymon Jaśkowiak each earned silver, while Wiktoria Klepacka collected bronze in the senior women's 56.7 kg category.