Jiri Prochazka wasn’t at his best leading up to his gold bid against Alex Pereira at UFC 295 in November.
Prochazka had to vacate his light heavyweight title leading up to his first title defense in December 2022 due to a severe shoulder injury.
It was nearly a year later that “BJP” got another shot at the vacant title against Pereira at UFC 295. Interestingly, the Czech claims he couldn’t train properly for his comeback, as he was battling a staph infection that started from his leg and went up to his ear.
“From the last weeks of preparation, I train just one week [because of] staph infection. After the fight, I fought with that for more than one month. I had antibiotics before the fight, so the last five weeks before the fight, [I couldn’t train properly]” the 31-year-old said on "The MMA Hour.”
However, Prochazka never considered pulling out of the fight as he believes there’s always a chance of victory.
“No. When I saw Jon Jones was injured, I thought, man what to say, doesn’t matter, I’m a warrior, and I’m going to fight,” Prochazka said. “I’m going to win every fight, it doesn’t matter [if I’m dealing with something]. Many times in a fight, I’ve dealt with sickness, injuries, many things, and I believe I can win. When you believe you can win, the way is open. That’s why I’m going to every fight.”
Prochazka went on to suffer a second-round technical knockout defat against “Poatan,” which was his first loss since 2015. “BJP” will return to face Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 300 on April 13.
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