Photo by Masashi Hara/Getty Images
Light heavyweight prospect Jiri Prochazka is all set to trade Rizin’s ring for the UFC’s Octagon.
Light heavyweight just became a bit more interesting in 2020. Amid reports that the UFC had signed Rizin Fighting Federation light heavyweight champion, Jiri Prochazka has signed with the UFC, the fighter himself took to social media to confirm the news.
“@ufc is signed,” Prochazka wrote in a post on Instagram, “it’s for me a next step on my way and because of that Im [sic] releasing lightheavyweight title in @rizin_pr.”
As of yet, no debut date or opponent has been announced for the Czech fighter’s UFC debut.
Still relatively young, at 27-years-of-age, Prochazka will carry a lot of experience into the Octagon. He has a 26-3 professional record and wins over some notable names under his belt already.
In his past five outings, ‘Denisa’ defeated Jake Heun, former Bellator middleweight champion Brandon Halsey, Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal, Fabio Maldonado and most recently, longtime UFC vet C.B. Dollaway. All of those victories coming by way of knockout, with only his win over Lawal stretching past the first round. Prochazka’s last defeat occurred in December 2015, when he got knocked out by Lawal in the RIZIN 2015 Grand Prix finals— having defeated Vadim Nemkov earlier that same night.
Earlier in his career, Jiri also scored wins over some other veterans of the sport, such as Pride legend Kazuyuki Fujita, current UFC fighter Darko Stosic and judo olympic star Satoshi Ishii. Again, all wins came by way of knockout.
In fact, over the course of Prochazka’s 29-fight professional career, he has only gone the distance once, winning two fights by submission and a whopping 23 via KO. Outside of his defeat to King Mo, Prochazka has losses to former UFC fighters Abdul-Kerim Edilov and Bojan Velickovic.