Welcome to the UFC, Fabinski & Galindo

When the UFC's debut card in Poland was announced, there was a lot of hope that the promotion would be scooping up some new national talent to compete in their home country. That didn't happen. The only polish fighter signed to make their debut on the card was relative unknown strawweight woman, Izabela Badurek. The UFC rarely gets to an even without injuries however, and a broken arm suffered by Krzysztof Jotko has opened the door to another Pol getting his shot in the Octagon. The UFC recently announced that Bartosz Fabinski will replace Jotko on UFC Fight Night Krakow on April 11th. Fabinski will make his debut against another newcomer, South African Garreth McLellan. Also set to make his debut (potentially early next year) is a Peruvian newcomer, Carlos Galindo. Peru Fighting Championship reported the news of his signing. So...

Who is Bartosz Fabinski?

The 28-year old Polish fighter trains out of S4 Fight Team along with the recently signed Badurek and regional vet Robert Jocz. Fabinski will make his way to the UFC with a record of 11-2, including wins over strong regional vets Antoni Chmielewski, Michal Szulinski, and Gergor Herb. Otherwise his record isn't amazing, but doesn't include much in the way of absolute walk over fights either. His two losses come to current UFC prospect Marcin Bandel and Brazilian regional vet Wendres Godzilla. Outside of MMA, Fabinski has a background in Judo and competed internationally for the AZS-AWF Warszawa athletic club.

What you should expect:

The base of Fabinski's game is big winging hooks into a powerful double leg takedown. Despite his Judo background, trips, throws, or fast submissions don't really seem to be a focal point of his arsenal. Mostly he depends on big power-slamming double legs, preferring to pick his opponents up bodily and throw them down. Once they are down, most of his top game is focused on consistent control and landing damaging ground-and-pound from the guard or half-guard. He has some real power in his build, so he can land some solid shots, both with his fists and elbows from the top. But, it's not a deeply nuanced game, and good, powerful grapplers have been able to beat him on the ground. On the feet, he's mostly concerned with pushing straight back into the clinch and spends very little time at range.

What this means for his debut:

A fight against Garreth McLellan is a pretty excellent matchup for Fabinski right out of the gate. Both fighters have a similar style, but while Fabinski prefers a more wrestling oriented, high reward takedown style, McLellan prefers trips and throws, often ending up on his back as a result. McLellan is a more aggressive grappler, but he's not an especially studied one, and is probably more likely to give up good positions for bad than he is to catch Fabinski sleeping. Otherwise Fabinski appears to be the more aggressive, consistent striker (although neither man shines there). Fabinski should be the odds on favorite to take this one.

To get us better acquainted, here's Fabinski's recent bout against Michal Szulinski at PLMMA 29:

Who is Carlos Galindo?

"Tailandes" (Thailand) as he is also known, is a 33-year old Peruvian fighter who had been scheduled to compete on the last season of TUF: Latin America, before unknown complications kept him from participating on the show. The UFC kept after him, however, and were eventually able to arrange his move to the US and a new camp at American Top Team. He's scheduled to spend "four or five months" there, before getting his first fight in the UFC, sometime "mid January." Galindo brings a 9-3-2 record to the UFC and is unbeaten in his last 6 fights, since coming back from a 3 year layoff in late 2012. He doesn't have much in the way of notable wins, but his only losses are to decent opposition, his last being to former UFC fighter Mike Rio in 2009.

What you should expect:

There's no one part of Galindo's game that is particularly polished, but all of it is fairly aggressive. At range he tends to bide his time until he can rush in behind a big flurry of wild strikes. He has power and some accuracy, but tends to keep his head up in the air and on line, while swinging away. When he can, Galindo tries to get the double collar tie in the clinch, from which he can land some good knees. Without it however, he's not a particularly controlling or offensive clinch fighter. To supplement his striking, he's developed a basic double leg takedown game. It's worked on the circuit he's been fighting on, but it's pretty weak and doesn't seem like it would translate to the UFC. His grappling especially seems to be lacking, as he's shown basic submission positions, but doesn't seem to know how to actually apply the submissions themselves. Moving to a big American camp will help him a lot, but as he's been fighting inconsistently for almost a decade, it's hard to know how ingrained his tendencies are.

To get us better acquainted, here's Galindo's last fight against Victor Nunes at Inka FC 25 (bout starts at 53:30):