MARTIAL ARTS from Poland

Top 4

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Polish Martial Arts of all time. This list of famous Polish Martial Arts is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Mariusz Pudzianowski (1977 - )

With an HPI of 45.95, Mariusz Pudzianowski is the most famous Polish Martial Arts.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages on wikipedia.

Mariusz Zbigniew Pudzianowski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈmarjuʂ pudʑaˈnɔfskʲi]; born 7 February 1977), also known as "Pudzian" and "Dominator", is a Polish entrepreneur, mixed martial artist and former strongman competitor. With 43 international victories at a record 70% winning percentage in his strongman career he is considered by many to be one of the greatest strength athletes of all time. During his career as a strongman, Pudzianowski won five World's Strongest Man titles, the most in history. He also won two runner-up titles in 2006 and 2009 and made 9 out of 9 appearances into the World's Strongest Man final (a feat replicated only by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson since then). He also won the Europe's Strongest Man a record 6 times. In 2009, Pudzianowski started his career as a mixed martial artist.

2. Jan Błachowicz (1983 - )

With an HPI of 41.86, Jan Błachowicz is the 2nd most famous Polish Martial Arts.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Jan Maciej Błachowicz (Polish: [ˈjan bwaˈxɔvitʂ]; born 24 February 1983) is a Polish professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Light Heavyweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. A professional since 2007, he also competed for KSW and is the former KSW Light Heavyweight Champion. He is the second Polish champion in UFC history, after Joanna Jędrzejczyk, and the first male Polish champion. As of August 1, 2023, he is #4 in the UFC light heavyweight rankings.

3. Joanna Jędrzejczyk (1987 - )

With an HPI of 36.79, Joanna Jędrzejczyk is the 3rd most famous Polish Martial Arts.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Joanna Jędrzejczyk (Polish: [jɔˈanna jɛndˈʐɛjtʂɨk], born August 18, 1987) is a Polish former professional mixed martial artist and Muay Thai kickboxer. She has been called the greatest female strawweight mixed martial artist of all time, including by Daniel Cormier, who credited her with putting the weight class "on the map". Jędrzejczyk holds several records in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where she is a former UFC Women's Strawweight Champion, including most successful strawweight title defenses (5), most consecutive wins at strawweight (8), and is the first Polish champion and first female European champion. After discovering Muay Thai as a teenager, Jędrzejczyk went on to earn six medals (five gold) at the IFMA World Muaythai Championships and held several different championship titles with promotions such as World Kickboxing Network and World Muaythai Council. Switching to mixed martial arts (MMA) in May 2012, Jędrzejczyk went undefeated in her first nine fights and won the UFC Women's Strawweight Championship in March 2015 after defeating Carla Esparza at UFC 185. Over the next two years, she continued her undefeated streak with five successful title defenses against opponents such as Jessica Penne, Cláudia Gadelha, and Jéssica Andrade. Jędrzejczyk suffered the first loss of her MMA career when she lost the championship to Rose Namajunas in November 2017. After losing a rematch with Namajunas, Jędrzejczyk defeated Tecia Torres before briefly returning to flyweight in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the vacant UFC Women's Flyweight Championship against Valentina Shevchenko in December 2018. Following a strawweight win over Michelle Waterson, Jędrzejczyk faced new strawweight champion Zhang Weili at UFC 248 in March 2020. Jędrzejczyk lost by split decision in what many pundits called the greatest fight in women's MMA history. Following a two-year layoff, Jędrzejczyk retired from mixed martial arts in June 2022 after losing a rematch against Zhang at UFC 275.

4. Paweł Nastula (1970 - )

With an HPI of 36.37, Paweł Nastula is the 4th most famous Polish Martial Arts.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Paweł Marcin Nastula (born 26 June 1970) is a Polish judoka and mixed martial artist. He was the 1995 and 1997 Judo World Champion, and the 1996 Olympic Champion in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, winning those titles in the ‍–‍95 kg weight category.