Prepare yourselves for Jiri Prochazka’s upcoming title shot by re-watching the violent bout against Dominick Reyes that earned him the #1 contender spot.
UFC 275: Teixeira vs. Jiri is two short weeks away and to help get fans hyped for the light heavyweight title fight, the UFC has released Jiri Prochazka’s violent win over Dominick Reyes from May 2021.
Prochazka earned his shot at the 205 pound strap off the strength of that victory, which saw him badly maul Reyes for the majority of nine minutes before scoring a knockout blow via vicious spinning back elbow. The move earned Jiri a top spot on many sports outlets’ Knockout of the Year lists and Reyes remains on the sidelines recovering from the finish.
The bout was just Prochazka’s second in the UFC, but “Denisa” entered the promotion on a wild ten fight win streak with nine of those coming via knockout. The Reyes knockout would confirm Prochazka was the real deal, and he found himself in line for a light heavyweight title shot. The only downside? He had to wait for Glover Teixeira to get his title shot first against Jan Blachowicz in October 2021. And then seven more months to finally get to fight Teixeira.
Prochazka has spent over a year without a fight, but he has been working diligently on improving his skills. This camp for UFC 275 saw the Czech fighter traveling to Arizona to train at Eric Albarracin’s Fight Ready gym in order to focus on his wrestling skills. Those are something we haven’t seen much of, largely due to Prochazka being a tornado of stand-up striking in most of his past fights.
UFC 275 goes down June 11th from the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore and also features a women’s flyweight title bout between champ Valentina Shevchenko and Taila Santos. In another key women’s match, strawweights Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk are running back their 2020 Fight of the Year bout which saw Zhang win via split decision.