With Conor McGregor off the card and hopes dwindled, Alex Pereira once again stepped up to save the day by rematching Jiri Prochazka and defending his light heavyweight title on just 16 days notice at UFC 303.
Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka Preview
Alex Pereira has quickly gone from one of the villains in the UFC to one of the heroes. When Pereira first joined the promotion and quickly rose to the top, he was seen as the rival of Israel Adesanya who was coming to take everything he worked for. While Pereira did take Adesanya’s middleweight title, his move to light-heavyweight following a knockout loss in the rematch surprised few. What surprised fans was how quickly Pereira skyrocketed up the all-time ranks when he claimed the light heavyweight belt in his 7th UFC fight. Pereira earned that belt by knocking out Jiri Prochazka in Round 2 of their first fight and has since defended the title against Jamahal Hill at UFC 300.
Jiri Prochazka has also attracted lots of attention and praise from fans since he started his UFC tenure. His wild style and unique mindset have garnered much popularity and set him apart from other fighters. His style was shown off in full when he grabbed a ridiculous comeback win to become the first man to KO Aleksandr Rakic at UFC 300. Prochazka is a former champion who beat Glover Teixeira to gain the belt but had a short-lived title run. A shoulder injury forced Prochazka to vacate the title and take a nearly 18-month layoff. He returned to fight for the vacant title against Alex Pereira and experienced his first loss in 8 years. Prochazka has now earned the chance to fight for the title once more and will leave everything in the cage to win.
Fight Recap
Before the start of the fight, another all-time great staredown happened between the two men. They met in the middle and began their second clash by getting right to work. Both men landed big left hands early and exchanged big counterpunches as the round progressed. Pereira’s kicks started to make an appearance as he targeted the legs and body with powerful kicks. Another big left hand from the champion forced Prochazka to clinch and get the fight to the ground. Once the two separated they exchanged kicks on the feet before Pereira dropped Prochazka with a massive left hand at the bell. Pereira had no time to follow up but Prochazka urged him to come to the ground even after the bell. Prochazka was visibly rocked to end the round and got up stumbling.
The second round started with both men meeting in the middle. Pereira launched a switch left head kick and dropped Prochazka on impact. The champion swarmed the clearly injured Prochazka and landed some massive ground and pound to force the stoppage seconds into Round 2.
UFC Fighters React to Alex Pereira’s Massive KO in Dominant Title Defense
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Featured Image Credit via Embed from Getty Images
