Jiri Prochazka wants to fight Alex Pereira next.
This past Saturday, Prochazka competed in the feature prelim of UFC 300, stopping Aleksandar Rakic in the second round after overcoming some difficulty in the first round. It was Prochazka’s first win since losing to Pereira in their vacant light heavyweight title fight at UFC 295, and one that he says he felt immense pressure to get.
“I feel great. I feel really great that the mission was successful,” Prochazka said Wednesday on The MMA Hour. “Especially this fight was, for me, I don’t want to say personal, but it was for me something really important, because all that preparation after the fight in New York, it was for me a big fight. So maybe that’s why I took that seriously and I was so focused for targeting the head or important places of Aleksandar’s body. Maybe that’s why I caught a lot of punches. I forgot to play more and be more relaxed.
“I don’t need to put pressure on myself, but especially this one, maybe the talking from Aleksandar helped to be more in focus,” Prochazka continued. “But the most important [thing] for me was to win this fight and show that’s my place, that’s my space in the cage. No matter what you want to do, your punches — I don’t want to say are nothing for me, but I know how to catch punches and I know how to go through, totally through the opponent.”
Jiri Prochazka wants Alex Pereira rematch as soon as possible, knows eating punches ‘will not work’ - MMA Fighting
