LAS VEGAS – After a giant comeback efficiency at UFC 300 on Saturday, Jiri Prochazka knew precisely what he needs subsequent – despite the fact that he didn’t know but whom it could be in opposition to.
Prochazka (30-4-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) took out Aleksandar Rakic (14-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) with a second-round TKO to shut out the preliminary card at T-Cellular Area. The UFC 300 card was stacked sufficient that Prochazka, not but two years faraway from the time he held the sunshine heavyweight title, was relegated to prelims. He was one in all 12 present or former UFC champs on the cardboard.
Prochazka submitted Glover Teixeira to win the sunshine heavyweight title in June 2022. He later vacated the title when he suffered an damage that was going to maintain him on the shelf lengthy sufficient to carry up the division.
He returned this previous November, although, and fought Alex Pereira for the then-vacant 205-pound belt within the UFC 295 fundamental occasion and was knocked out within the second spherical. So when he known as for a title shot after his win over Rakic, he didn’t even know but it could get to be in opposition to Pereira (10-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC), who defended the title with a superb first-round knockout of ex-champ Jamahal Hill (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in the primary occasion.
“Sure, (I need a title shot),” Prochazka stated at his post-fight information convention. “It doesn’t matter for me. For me, proper now, it’s most vital to enhance myself in coaching and to take this expertise from tonight to the subsequent combat as quickly as doable. I’m nonetheless studying tips on how to join my violence and that hound intuition with the mastery, with the approach, with current second to maintain it in a single. Particularly after (the Rakic win), I consider I deserve it.”
Prochazka stated a second assembly with Pereira can be completely different than the primary and acknowledged he has critics of his model, which frequently can embody his arms down and a fast wade into the waters of cellphone booth-type standup battles.
That technique, he stated, is as a lot of a psychological factor on his half as it’s to function a psychological factor for his opponent. However in opposition to Pereira, it may backfire.
“That is one thing inside me that I’ve each time, that drawback that I’ve – to indicate my opponent ‘you don’t have anything to me,’” Prochazka stated. “However I’m attempting to be extra skilled as a result of with the blokes like Pereira, it’s not good to catch any punches. That’s why I’m engaged on the pinnacle motion, like a flash, like a a shadow.
“… That’s the rationale why the (first) combat with Pereira was stopped slightly bit earlier, (as a result of I don’t maintain my arms up). Nevertheless it doesn’t matter. We’re right here and now, and I’m wanting what’s earlier than me.”
After his win over Hill, a surprising knockout simply seconds after he was hit within the cup and waved off an opportunity to get a restoration timeout, Pereira hinted he has curiosity in a transfer as much as heavyweight to problem for a title there. He already was the UFC’s middleweight champion, however after he misplaced that belt in his first tried protection, he went to 205 kilos and shortly received a title there, too.
A heavyweight title would make him the primary three-division champion in UFC historical past, and if he’s severe about that transfer, it may ship Prochazka’s hopes for a rematch into purgatory for some time.
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