LAS VEGAS – After a great comeback performance at UFC 300 on Saturday, Jiri Prochazka I knew exactly what I wanted next – although I still didn’t know who it would be against.
Prochazka (30-4-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) knocked out Aleksandar Rakic (14-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) with a technical knockout in the second round to close out the preliminary card at T-Mobile Arena. O UFC 300 The card was stacked enough that Prochazka, who was not yet two years into holding the light heavyweight title, was demoted to the preliminaries. He was one of 12 current or former UFC champions on the card.
Prochazka submitted Glover Teixeira to win the light heavyweight title in June 2022. He later vacated the title after suffering an injury that would keep him on the shelf long enough to hold the division.
He returned last November, however, and fought Alex Pereira for the then-vacant 205-pound belt in the main event of UFC 295 and was knocked out in the second round. So when he called for a title shot after his win over Rakic, he didn’t even know it would be against Pereira (10-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC), who defended his title with a brilliant first round knockout of former champion Jamahal Hill ( 12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in the main event.
“Yes, (I want a title shot),” Prochazka said in his post-fight press conference. “It does not matter to me. For me, right now, the most important thing is to improve myself in training and take this experience from tonight to the next fight as quickly as possible. I’m still learning how to connect my violence and that dog instinct with the mastery, with the technique, with the present moment to hold it together. Especially after (Rakic’s win), I believe I deserve it.”
Prochazka said a second meeting with Pereira would be different from the first and acknowledged that he has criticisms of his style, which can often include hands down and a quick entry into the waters of phone booth-style exchanges.
This strategy, he said, is as much a mental thing on your part as it serves as a mental thing for your opponent. But against Pereira the plan could backfire.
“That’s something inside me that I always have, that problem that I have – showing my opponent ‘you don’t have anything for me,’” Prochazka said. “But I’m trying to be more professional because with guys like Pereira it’s not good to take punches. That’s why I’m working on the movement of the head, like a flash, like a shadow.
“… That’s why the (first) fight with Pereira was stopped a little early, (because I don’t keep my hands up). But it does not matter. We are here and now, and I am looking at what is in front of me.”
After his victory over Hill, a stunning knockout just seconds after being hit in the cup and having ruled out the chance to get a recovery timeout, Pereira hinted that he is interested in moving up to heavyweight to challenge for the title there. He was already the UFC middleweight champion, but after losing the belt on his first defense attempt, he moved up to 205 pounds and quickly won the title there as well.
A heavyweight title would make him the first three-division champion in UFC history, and if he takes that move seriously, it could send Prochazka’s hopes of a rematch into purgatory for a while.
For more information on the card, visit the MMA Junkie events hub to UFC 300.
