Krzysztof Jotko will pocket big money if he defeats Kerim Engizek in the €1 million Tipsport Gamechanger tournament this Saturday in Düsseldorf, Germany, and he’s aiming even higher in 2026.
Jotko is a longtime veteran of the UFC, where he beat the likes of Misha Cirkunov, Gerald Meerschaert, and Eryk Anders for a promotion record of 11-6. The Polish middleweight made his way to the Oktagon tourney final with a trio of victories in 2025.
“He don’t have nothing on me,” Jotko told MMA Fighting. “I fight with better people. Let’s check the [records], who he fight and where he fight, and where I fight with who, and you have the answer. He fight only in Germany, Slovakia and Czech Republic. He fights in his backyard all the time. He never being in a big stage, he never fight in Australia, Canada, America, with the toughest guys in the UFC. We’re going to find out this weekend.”
“I think he’s a tough guy,” he continued. “He’s a tough guy. He’s not going to quit. He comes hard on me, 100 percent. I expect him to comes hard on me when he has lot of energy, but I think round by round I’m going to break him, little bit by little. I want to finish my job in round three.”
The original plan was to book the fight for Dec. 28 in Prague, but Engizek had to postpone it after fracturing his hand. Jotko doesn’t mind competing in Engizek’s backyard this time around, and wonders if he’s already 100 percent recovered from the serious hand issue.
“I broke my hands six times,” Jotko said. “One time I coming back after six months, I fight with the Brad Tavares in the UFC and I really don’t feel good so I don’t know, maybe he gonna feel good and have a good training camp, I don’t know, but I don’t believe this. We’ll see what we’re gonna see this weekend.”
Jotko said that a medical error had him compete three times with a broken hand during his UFC career, and that’s one of the issues he’s had at the time. At age 36, and riding a four-fight winning streak — his longest in a decade — Jotko believes he’s finally realizing his full potential.
“I have a lot of problems in my private life with my ex-wife, I have a problem with my health, with my stomach, so my life was not good, and I couldn’t focus 100 percent,” Jotko said. “But I fixed my life, I fixed everything. I feel really like I’m in the prime right now, and you can see it, I have four-win streak, two TKOs, and Saturday is going to me my fifth win.”
Asked if he regrets entering the cage when he wasn’t fit, Jotko said “sometimes life makes you do stupid decisions.”
“Like, for example, if you don’t have the money and you have a fight coming up, you need to take them because you don’t have money for life, you know what I mean?” Jotko said. “I have a couple mistakes in what I did, my career in the UFC. I lose some fights, I also fight with the broken hands. I fight for three fights with my broken hands. But now I’m good, you can see my records, and everything is going good direction.”
The Polish veteran parted ways with the UFC after a loss to Brendan Allen in 2022 and fought once under the PFL banner the following year. Will Fleury bested Jotko via split decision, but the result was overturned to a no-contest after Fleury tested positive for drostanolone. Jotko also failed a drug test in PFL and never went back to the promotion.
Once again under the same umbrella as part of the Oktagon roster, Jotko climbs the middleweight rankings while Fleury holds both heavyweight and light heavyweight titles. Jotko has no intention to go all the way up to the heaviest weight class, but likes the idea of being a champ-champ in 2026.
“We have some unfinished business,” Jotko said. “If everything gonna be good with the middleweight division, I’m gonna jump higher and try to take his [light heavyweight] belt and take my rematch [laughs].”
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