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On the evening of June 30, as part of UFC 303, the title rematch between Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka took place. The first fight was memorable because the Czech fighter prepared quite well for his opponent, mixed attacks with feints and caused a lot of problems. At the same time, Jiri received many low kicks, which cannot be done with Pereira, and kept his hands too low – Prochazka’s eternal problem. In the end, I paid for it.
In the rematch, Jiri was absolutely terrible. The no-hands stance was supplemented by a strange game plan with sitting under Alex’s hard punches. Prochazka tried to counter with low kicks, but completely forgot that his opponent had terrible power in his hands and that it was better to take care of his head. As a result, at least three hard left hooks hit Jiri’s head. One of them knocked the Czech down. And then there was a strong knockout after a head kick.
How Pereira dealt with Prochaska:
Pereira is undefeated at light heavyweight. He came out on short notice and destroyed Prochazka.
“When I was in the locker room, my coach Plinio showed me a video of Jiri warming up for our fight. I noticed that he was planning to counter my low kicks. Defend and counterattack. But I told Plinio that his timing was not very good. Then, I noticed that Jiri is too focused on defending against low kicks and keeps his hands down, leaving his head open. So I told the coach that I would try to catch him with a high kick,” Pereira explained after the fight.
And Prochazka’s problem has been with him throughout his career. Big questions constantly arise about Prochazka’s actions and his fighting IQ. The Czech fighter’s element is chaos, his fights are never boring, but his loopholes still show that Prochazka was an accidental champion. You can remember every fight of Jiri in the promotion – everywhere he periodically showed something crazy that could lead to failure.
Jiri Prochazka
Photo: Ian Maule/Getty Images
In his debut against Volkan Oezdemir, Prochazka received a strong blow to the head in the first round, but perseverance helped. The fighter persistently applied pressure, eventually overpowering Oezdemir and knocking him out. In the next fight, Jiri managed to “eat” a powerful kick from Dominick Reyes. At that moment, according to Prochazka himself, he fainted for a while, but quickly came to his senses and continued to fight. The title fight with Glover Teixeira was a parade of mistakes on both sides, but Jiri was luckier in this madness. Again, largely because he managed to drag his opponent into his element – chaos.
And it cannot be said that this problem appeared relatively recently. Prochazka shone for quite a long time in Rizin, where he put on the same spectacular fights and every time he was at risk of falling at any second. The picture was always the same: Jiri lowered his hands, took a semi-karate stance and began to press, tried to do pull-ups and crouches, but invariably missed his head. This worked well in the fight with Vadim Nemkov, but in the next fight at the Rizin World Grand Prix, Muhammad Lawal survived Prochazka’s attack in the first minutes and then punished him. Jiri got up after a takedown of his opponent and simply ran after him with his hands down. Lawal responded with a counterattack and left Prochazka on the canvas.
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After the second fight with Alex Pereira, the Czech fighter was incredibly upset: “Thank you for your support. I want to thank Alex for the fight. He was great. And the only thing I think about is that I need to improve or end my career. Thank you for all your support.”
The problem is that even after the first loss, Prochazka was determined to get better. But that didn’t happen. In the fight with Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 300, he took absolutely every punch to the head, but managed to survive, then dragged his opponent into exchanges and knocked him out. However, it looks like things are going to get even tougher for Prochazka. He can fight Jamal Hill in a similar way, but guys with a high fighting IQ like Pereira will run over Jiri mercilessly.
Alex Pereira – Jiri Prochazka
Photo: Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
These fighters with a bright style, of course, should be in any promotion. They are able to decorate the map, their fights are always interesting to watch, but Prochazka will most likely not become a champion anymore. Life teaches the Czech nothing; he still acts with his hands on the ground, so he risks spending the rest of his career, at best, in the status of an eternal contender. At worst, he will repeat the fate of Tony Ferguson, who is already co-owner of the anti-record for the number of consecutive defeats in the UFC. Even if Prochazka is welcomed with open arms in Rizin, the Japanese promotion is gaining momentum and will be happy to bring back its former star.
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