Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka 2
Both Pereira and Prochazka accepted this fight on very short notice and had approximately two weeks to prepare, which adds a degree of uncertainty about their conditioning for this bout. In Pereira’s case, he was in Australia doing a tour when he accepted the fight and had an extremely abbreviated fight camp. Pereira is also dealing with a broken toe, which he also fought through at UFC 300 in April.
Pereira and Prochazka fought previously at UFC 295 roughly seven months ago. In that fight, Pereira landed a short left hook to drop Prochazka to his knees and then finished Prochazka with downward elbows as a hurt Prochazka was hunting a takedown. Some people thought the stoppage was too early, but Prochazka admitted to being out after the fight.
Prior to the finish, Prochazka had his moments. Prochazka utilized unorthodox movement and feints to land on Pereira, and Prochazka had success using pressure to back Pereira up into the octagon fence, which inhibited Pereira’s distance management. Pereira’s striking defense is primarily based on using his length to stay out of range, and by backing Pereira up near the fence, Prochazka was able to keep Pereira in range and land some good strikes. Prochazka pressuring forward also helped reduce the impact of Pereira’s calf kicks, which are one of Pereira’s best weapons—it is difficult to throw kicks when backing up.
However, it was Prochazka’s pressure that ultimately contributed to him getting finished. Pereira is one of the most dangerous strikers in the UFC, and by pressuring forward, Prochazka was open to return fire by a fighter who is nicknamed “Poatan”, which means “Hands of Stone”. Pereira has arguably the greatest left hook in the history of MMA, and it was this left hook that found the button and contributed to the finishing sequence. Defensively, Prochazka is prone to keeping his hands low, which makes him hittable when he closes the distance to throw strikes. This shows up in Prochazka’s striking metrics—Prochazka has avoided just 41% of opponent significant strike attempts, which is a poor rate.