Reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is fighting former 205-pound titleholder Jiri Prochazka on short notice, a hastily assembled headliner (and UFC 295 rematch) cobbled together to save the UFC 303 fight card on June 29 in Las Vegas.
Original headliner, Conor McGregor, bailed after breaking his toe.
Pereira, 36, doesn’t expect to see a different version of the 31 year-old Prochazka after they last fought back in Nov. of 2023. Similarly, “Poatan” won’t have much time to refine his gameplan — but does plan to work on his takedown defense ahead of this weekend’s five-round title fight.
“I don’t think he would have changed that much, it hasn’t been that long,” Pereria told The MacLife. “I was just watching his last fight yesterday, and obviously you can’t compare because it’s a different fight, but I don’t think he was able to change that much since our last fight. If there’s one thing I could maybe change, it’s my takedown defense.”
In the months following their first go-round, Pereira (10-2) defended the light heavyweight title by knocking out Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 last April. As for Prochazka (30-4-1), who also competed at UFC 300, he torched Aleksandar Rakic by way of second round technical knockout.
“I like taking these opportunities,” Pereira continued. “I’m going to be 37. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be fighting. It’s hard to say if I would accept the fight against someone else, but in this case it is Jiri. It’s not necessarily the fact that I’ve fought him before and beat him before, but the fact that we knew we were supposed to be fighting soon. If we were to fight in August, this is when we would start picking up training.”
For the rest of the UFC 303 fight card and PPV lineup click here.