This past Saturday night in the featured prelim of UFC 300, we saw a massive light heavyweight matchup. Former champion Jiri Prochazka (30-4-1) was looking to get back on track as he took on the returning Aleksandar Rakic (14-4).
This was Rakic’s first fight in nearly two years after suffering a serious knee injury in his last bout. For Prochazka, this was his first fight since losing the vacant title fight to Alex Pereira last November at MSG. Both men had so much to gain at UFC 300.
Throughout the first round, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Aleksandar Rakic look better. He was beating up the legs of Jiri Prochazka with brutal kicks and he was landing clean shots up top. He looked incredibly sharp and fast. There was definitely no ring rust for Rakic. That said, Prochazka never wavered and continued to push forward.
Near the end of the first round, he found some success by making Rakic brawl with him and even rocked Rakic a little. In the second round, Prochazka continued to push through the first and as commentator Daniel Cormier said, Prochazka was looking to just drown Rakic with his pressure.
Eventually, that’s what Prochazka did. The former UFC light heavyweight champion went through the first and landed a clean right straight to the chin which hurt Rakic bad. Rakic tried to fight back but ended up being pushed to the ground because he was so rocked. Prochazka followed up with big shots and the fight was stopped giving Prochazka the TKO win.
What’s next after UFC 300?
The former champion made it clear after his performance on Saturday night that he wanted another shot at the title. It’s hard to deny him after that performance. Thus far in his UFC career, Prochazka is now 4-1 in five fights. The lone loss was to Pereira but his four wins which all came by finish were against Rakic, Glover Teixeira, Dominick Reyes, and Volkan Oezdemir.
Prochazka is a monster and without question, he’s one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC. I think without question his next fight should be for the title. I just don’t know if he’ll be next for Alex Pereira. Pereira wants to remain very active and Magomed Ankalaev is deserving of a title shot as well. I could see the promotion putting Pereira and Ankalaev together over the summer.
That would allow Prochazka to fight the winner in the fall. Perhaps around the MSG card. I could see a scenario where Jon Jones returns to face Stipe Miocic at the November MSG card with Prochazka challenging for the light heavyweight title in the co-main event. If he doesn’t get a title shot, they might give him a fight with Jamahal Hill which is what Hill wants.
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