“It’s more fun to be at home because it’s a different kind of energy,” she explains. “But even if you go somewhere else and the arena is against you, you get another kind of energy. It’s not bad or good, it’s fun or [different] fun.”
Most American audiences were introduced to Malecki on the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighters. And while a championship at TUF wasn’t in the cards, her skills in the cage were evident, and her entry into the women’s bantamweight division probably qualifies as a no-brainer.
“I guess I did something good, because it got me a UFC contract,” she says modestly.
Another positive to come from the show was her friendship with cast mate Macy Chiasson. And while Sweden may be an MMA hotbed, the relative scarcity of female sparring partners in her weight class sent her Stateside for six weeks to Fortis MMA to prepare for her debut. Reunited with Chiasson, she was able to harness some of the energy that has served that season’s winner so well in her young UFC career.
“We are really good friends and she let me stay at her place for those six weeks. She’s a really good person, a really good training partner, and a really good fighter.”
