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Prochazka was not happy to hear that the UFC commentary booth took him to task for fighting with his hands low again.

Jiri Prochazka put on an impressive performance against a tough opponent in Jamahal Hill at UFC 311, knocking out the former champion in the third round of their main card fight (highlights here). It wasn’t always easy, though. Hill landed more than a few big shots, and there was a risk the fight might get called after Prochazka took a particularly nasty poke to the eye.

During the UFC 311 post-fight press conference, Prochazka discussed his improvement, the eye poke, and accusations from the broadcast team that he was still sloppy in one particular area.

“That was the change what I wanted to show,” Jiri said of not going for the kill when he had Hill hurt in the first round. “Like, I don’t need to press myself and be in a hurry for a knockout, like, 100% knockout. I want a knockout, but be ready for for everything … Catch the opponent in the right times. Seriously and not so seriously making a contact. Feeling good in a fight. And this is something I achieved.”

“Me and my team, we took the preparation very seriously. So I’m happy that I I showed some little improvement with the hands up. But still, I believe in my feeling of my head movement and of the feeling of the of the distance. So this is my game.”

“l still feel [the eye poke] right now,” Prochazka revealed. “There is no way to stop the fight because of eye poke. I’ve got one more eye. We are here to fight, to win the fight. I know there is rules and all these things, but this is the true sport of man, the fight. And you fighting with eyes, no eyes, if the opponent gets you to ‘the boss’ or not. Doesn’t matter. For me, it’s fight till the end. There has to be one winner, and one who’s not.”

“I will play for the doctors the game that I’m okay, if he wants to stop or something like that. Like I said, no way for them to stop it because of this.”

Prochazka has taken a lot of criticism for leaving himself defensively open with his hands-down stance. And that didn’t change after UFC 311, which featured Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier castigating the former 205 pound champ for not keeping his hands up.

“I had, in first round, hands down?” Prochazka said when told of their comments. “F**k them. F**k them! I worked on that so much. So I think you should see that.”

He laughed as he said it, but it’s clear he’s doesn’t like the accusations of sloppy hand positioning.

“Man, all the messages every day: ‘Man, you have to keep your hands up,’” he said. “So okay, I will do that. For this fight, I will keep that especially for this night. No!”

“Like I said, I believe in my senses,” he continued. “I believe in my feeling in a fight, in my head movement. And that’s why I can keep the hands down. But to be honest, in last fight with Alex [Pereira] it was a little bit too much. So … this is something what I’ve worked on and I wanna see the video from the fight because I believe that I did that, just a little bit.”

Everyone including Rogan and Cormier agreed, his head movement was indeed on point against Hill at UFC 313. But can he rely on that against a fearsome opponent like Alex Pereira, who has already proved twice that he can find Prochazka’s button and hit it with relative ease?

Despite suggesting he wouldn’t fight Ankalaev next, Pereira says he demanded the tough Russian opponent for his March return in Las Vegas.

Alex Pereira will return after a five month break in March at UFC 313 where he’ll face No. 1 contender Magomed Ankalaev in what may be his stiffest test yet.

That fight was announced during UFC 311 in Los Angeles, and “Poatan” was on hand to enjoy the fights and speak about his latest challenge.

“I did say that I wanted to take a break, but I start training again, I start feeling good,” he told ESPN’s Megan Olivi backstage through his translator. “I start seeing my evolution. So I call my managers right away and I say, ‘I wanna fight. I wanna fight in March. I wanna fight Ankalaev.’”

“I know he keeps saying that I’m a just an employee of the UFC, I fight whenever they want. But I asked for him. I told them when I wanna fight.”

There’s some controversy surrounding Pereira’s proposed date: Ankalaev is a practicing Muslim, and UFC 313 on March 8th lands one week into Ramadan, a holy month where he won’t be able to eat or drink until after sunset. While heavy training is usually over by a week before an event, Ankalaev will have to navigate fight week, weigh-ins, and fight day while observing Ramadan restrictions as best he can.

Maybe this is what “Poatan” meant when he said he planned on making things ‘a little bit harder’ for Ankalaev due to all the trash talk.

When it came to Magomed as an opponent, Alex didn’t build him up despite what many expect will be a significant advantage for the Russian fighter on the ground.

“He’s as dangerous as any other fighter I’ve fought,” Pereira said. “Looking at him, the way that he fights, he’s an ordinary guy. Of course he has his weapons, has his dangers. But I’ve been training hard. I evolved a lot, and I’m ready for him.”

Also at UFC 311 was Pereira’s former two-time opponent Jiri Prochazka, who won his bout against Jamahal Hill via TKO in the third round (watch the highlights here). Despite already holding a 2-0 record over “BJP,” Pereira said he’d fight Prochazka again.

“I’m ready to fight anybody, it doesn’t matter who,” he said. “Right now, it’s Ankalaev’s time. I’m gonna fight Ankalaev. But after this fight, [if] everything’s doing good, we’re gonna give Jiri an opportunity. That’s what he said that he wants, and he’s gonna have it.”

Lightweight champ Makhachev believes he could beat middleweight champ Dricus Du Plessis, if the UFC was willing to put the unlikely fight together.

On Saturday night at UFC 311, Islam Makhachev beat Renato Moicano for his fourth title defense, breaking a UFC record for most consecutive defenses by a lightweight champion. And it sounds like he’s just getting started.

While Makhachev has talked about becoming a double champion in the future, he sounded committed to continuing to defend his belt at 155 pounds.

“For me, no matter,” he told Joe Rogan when asked who was next. “Whoever can make 155, just step into the cage and stand in front of me … I like this belt. It’s not my job [to choose challengers]. If somebody wants this belt, come to the cage.”

He reiterated that stance at the UFC 311 post-fight press conference.

“Not my business, I’m the fighter. Just send me contract,” Makhachev said. “That’s it. I need some new targets. I need some jobs. I want to be busy.”

Makhachev’s issue is he’s already beaten almost everyone at the top of the lightweight rankings. He beat Charles Oliveira at UFC 280. Dustin Poirier at UFC 302. Arman Tsarukyan he beat in 2019, and now the UFC has said “Akhalkalakets” will have to re-earn a No. 1 contender spot. There’s Justin Gaethje, who’s been scheduled to fight at UFC 313 against Dan Hooker (whom Makhachev beat at UFC 267).

With the top of the division nearly swept clean, Makhachev could be demanding a shot at a second belt. Maybe it’s because the welterweight title is currently held by his friend and training partner Belal Muhammad, but Islam is sounding very zen and patient about his goal.

“I don’t know when it’s gonna happen, but I told you: I’m not leave this sport without a second belt,” Makhachev said. “I need the second belt, after I will talk like I’m the greatest or something. But right now, my goal is to be double champ.”

“I don’t know if it’s gonna be next fight or when. I’m gonna [keep] fighting, [keep] winning, defend my belt. How many times the UFC want me to defend my belt, I will defend. And even when they give me chance, I want to be [defending] double champ.”

He even suggested a middleweight title win was possible, in a world where the UFC would grant him a shot at it.

“I can be three division [champion] also,” he said. “Just give me the chance, I will fight with Dricus Du Plessis. If they give me the chance, I will fight with him also. I swear if Dana White send me contract, I will fight with him also.”

But for now, his sights are set on defending at lightweight.

“If you see 155, send me contract,” he concluded. “That’s it. Who gonna make 155? Let’s go.

Here’s what you may have missed!

“Fraud check” is THE phrase of the 2020s in MMA.

How many times have we seen this cycle play out? A young prospect with a flashy style joins the Octagon ranks. He styles on a few opponents who usually don’t have impressive UFC records. The hype builds and the betting odds swell. A fight or two later, that exciting youth is getting blanketed by an unheralded (but actually pretty good) UFC veteran, busting parlays and inciting angry calls of “FRAUD CHECK” from the nosebleeds.

This is not a new phenomena even if the term is recent. Young prospects have been getting wrestled since the dawn of MMA. In the past, however, it seemed like fight fans were a little more hip to the concept. Any time a slick striker started to rise, somebody would be in the comments wondering “but has he faced a wrestler yet?” Nobody is asking those questions anymore, so we’re just left with angry accusations of fraud when the inevitable happens.

Payton Talbott is the latest example. He’s a really slick striker with great fighting instincts and considerable physical gifts. The 26-year-old was also just 9-0 prior to last night, which is a little early to be a 12-1 favorite. Talbott doesn’t have control of the betting odds, of course, but his opponent Raoni Barcelos injected some reality into the situation.

Here’s the kicker: Barcelos is quite good. We’re talking about a lifelong martial artist. He’s a national wrestling champion in Brazil with a bunch of jiu-jitsu accolades and a father who has a freaking coral belt. Barcelos started his UFC career off with a 5-0 run, only slowing down because he ran into several really good fighters as he entered his late 30s.

Simply put, losing to Barcelos doesn’t mean Talbott sucks. Barcelos has more than twice the experience and a lot more years on the mats than Talbott. It really shouldn’t be such a shock that a fighter entering his 10th pro fight still needs more seasoning.

What’s the cause in the shift, the move from “good prospects sometimes lose while learning” to “he’s no longer undefeated therefore fraud?” It’s a consequence of the UFC’s desperate search for new stars. The whole UFC system right now is built upon bringing in a heap of young fighters from Contenders Series and marketing any of them who win a couple fights in a row as The Next Big Thing™.

Spoiler: most aren’t.

It’s pretty simple arithmetic that for every Sean O’Malley or Alex Pereira who rises through the ranks in explosive fashion, a bunch more athletes are going to hit stumbling blocks. Payton Talbott is not the one in a million fighter who is world-class at everything just a handful of fights into his career. Nobody would have thought otherwise were it not for the marketing push behind him.

The bottom line here is that Talbott can still be a talented young fighter even after losing a fight. He still could accomplish great things in the cage. MMA fans used to pride themselves on loving fighters with multiple losses in contrast with boxing’s unholy focus on padded records. By modern standards, Charles Oliveira was fraud checked eight times before winning and defending UFC gold.

Fueled by sports betting and the marketing machine, expectations are now outlandish. Talbott is nowhere near the first to get burned nor will he be the last.

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For complete UFC 311 results and play-by-play, click here.