This weekend, Alex Pereira takes on Jiri Prochazka in hopes of capturing his fourth belt in combat sports. Prochazka, on the other hand, will be vying to win back the title that was once his before a devastating shoulder injury that saw him lose what was once his.
Questions for today’s Beforemath will circle around the epic matchup in the main event of UFC 295. Will Pereira’s power translate to 205? Can Prochazka’s unorthodox striking get to Pereira?
Please consider supporting the newsletter by signing up for extra content. Only $5 a month. Here is a preview of what you can expect.
Jiri Prochazka: Unorthodox striking
To say that Jiri Prochazka fights wrong would be reductive of his accomplishments. He is 29-3-1 with 25 knockouts and 3 submissions not to mention winning the title. Prochazka doesn’t fight wrong, he fights different.
Prochazka puts a lot of emphasis on his chin in fights, leaning forward leading with his chin. Obviously against Alex Pereira that won’t jive and Prochazka will want to tighten up his defense. We’ve seen him fight differently in the past according to his opponent. Against Dominick Reyes and Volkan Oezdemir, Prochazka fought like a bull in a China shop. But when he challenged Glover Teixeira for the title, he was prepared to be in it for the long haul. He will not look to fight like he did against Teixeira, but he will fight different.
A big part of Prochazka’s game involves the teep. He has this odd quirk where he waves his right hand in the air as to throw an overhand right, then comes behind with the push kick. Against Pereira, this can keep Pereira from coming with forward pressure and putting Prochazka on the fence where he does his best work.
On the topic of unorthodox striking, above we see Prochazka doing just that. Hands ever low, (1) Jiri Prochazka steps in deep and (2) changes levels while slapping the leg of Reyes threatening a takedown. (3) I don’t know what’s going on with his right arm in the third frame but it draws a reaction out of Reyes who looks for a right hook. At the last minute (4) Prochazka pops up and lands a left hook.
Dominick Reyes is no Alex Pereira in the standup. While Pereira struggled with the left hook of Blachowicz, the awkwardness was different from Prochazka who leaves himself open to counters a bit more. He will want to keep some of this quirkiness against Pereira while tightening up some of his defense in the meantime.
Jiri Prochazka loves to change levels and come up top but most of the time he will not actually punch the body. Instead he kicks with the aforementioned push kick, it slaps at the leg to pop up with a hook, again, seen earlier. To look at what could work for Prochazka, however, we can also look at Israel Adesanya’s fight with him at UFC 287.
Israel Adesanya absolutely punches the body and does it well when he’s coaxed to fight. Adesanya wants to throw a right hand up top but needs Pereira to lower his high guard to sneak one by. He starts off with (1) a jab to the body followed by (2) a right hand. Adesanya had to come behind with the right to lower Pereira’s guard after the jab not having done it quite enough. Having thrown the right, Adesanya needs to queue it back up and (3) throws a jab behind it and (4) the right up top.
Jiri Prochazka will have to mix the striking up against Pereira. While his power is front loaded in a fight, Pereira showed that he does pack a punch later in the fight. Fans will flash back to UFC 281 when Pereira knocked Adesanya out again in round five. But Prochazka, who is a slow starter of sorts, will have to will this fight into existence, especially after a years layoff due to his shoulder injury. Leaning on Pereira, not necessarily attempting a takedown but stealing minutes off the clock in control time, will be a big factor. But Prochazka will have to get him to the fence with that push kick of his followed by some actual effective striking.
Alex Pereira: A new combat sports king
With the opportunity to win his fourth different title in two sports, Alex Pereira is facing down history this weekend. UFC 295 is, perhaps, his hardest challenge to date. Israel Adesanya has lost to him three times. Jan Blachowicz gave him a run but was only three rounds. This fight, against a larger man, a chaotic one, will give Pereira a diving board into a new level of stardom.
But how does he take on a fighter where he doesn’t face a clear size advantage and where his power won’t be as big of a factor as it was at middleweight? Pereira will have to rely on his tact and skill to defeat Jiri Prochazka.
Alex Pereira’s main point of attack against Prochazka should be the low kicks. He’s got a very slick one that isn’t telegraphed at all. It may not have all the power on it that it could have, but it packs more than enough of a punch (kick?) to cause enough damage against his Czech foe.
Prochazka struggled against Volkan Oezdemir, as long as that fight lasted. Pereira’s kicks will cause more damage and be harder for Prochazka to time and counter.
Much of what makes Alex Pereira’s low kicks so tricky and not telegraphed is his lead foot placement, as was pointed out by @9h6st21 on X, who is a member of Weill Zhang’s camp and helped prepare her for her last title fight against Amanda Lemos.
With a rear kick, a pivot is required to get the hip torque to generate the power at the end of the foot where the strike is being placed. What Pereira does is pre-pivot this foot. (1) He starts out in his normal stance and (2) as he steps in will turn his foot out as if he was pivoting. This brings his hips around but requires next to no load up time in the traditional sense. Pereira sacrifices a bit of power by doing this and not using his hips and legs in one unified motion. But what it does do is allow him to sneak in the low kicks that brutalize an opponent’s mobility and has them reaching down if undisciplined.
In his last fight with Adesanya, Pereira destroyed “The Last Stylebender’s” legs, going 26 of 36 down low. The point of attack should be the same with Jiri Prochazka. He relies on his athleticism for most of what he does with large step ins to enter exchanges quickly. If Pereira takes that athleticism away by making it hard to walk, much less lunge in, it will benefit from it for the remainder of the fight. Pereira must attack the legs early and often while Prochazka is adjusting to getting back into the fighting world. There, he can begin to work towards that left hook everyone loves.
Once the legs are smashed and Prochazka realizes that he has absolutely no clue how to check low kicks, Pereira can begin to press him to the fence.
In the past we’ve discussed Alex Pereira’s use of the fence, comparing his fights With Israel Adesanya in kickboxing and mixed martial arts. In traditional kickboxing, (1) the ropes allow an opponent to lean back and out of the ring, making shots harder to land, though not impossible. When he fought Adesanya the first time, (2) the hard barrier of the cage allowed Pereira to really push the punishment as Adesanya couldn’t simply lean out of the ropes. It seems small and silly, sure, but when you remember that this is exactly how Pereira knocked out Adesanya in the first MMA fight, you can see how much of a difference not being able to move your head can make.
Jiri Prochazka has his hands incredibly low, leaving himself wide open. Glover Teixeira, Pereira’s teammate, hurt him with a basic 1-1-2. Dominick Reyes had him stunned. Prochazka gets hurt. It will be on Pereira to remain patient to find the right opening and be prepared to do so more than once.
I hate that I have to go to this diagram every time Pereira fights but the left hook is too important to ignore. His knockout of now-middleweight champ Sean Strickland is a perfect example of that. The setup was simple: Sean Strickland reaches down at things. So Pereira (1) gave him something to swat at by jabbing to the body. He created the expectation of going to the body by dipping down a bit exaggerated to let him know what was coming. As soon as (2) Pereira dropped his body, (3) Strickland reached down and Pereira (4) landed the left home clean.
The left hook will be something that Pereira can utilize against someone like Jiri Prochazka. He rushes in and, like his only knockout at light heavyweight against Donegi Abena in Glory, the left hook can land and win Pereira the belt.
Winning the title at 205 packs so much flavor onto the fight for Alex Pereira. Prochazka is seen as the rightful champion and took the belt from Teixeira, Pereira’s teammate. A win would almost certainly lure Israel Adesanya back up to light heavyweight for a fifth fight across two sports. But for Prochazka, this fight marks a return to what he loves: fighting.
UFC 295 will have a winner and a loser. The fans will be on the winning side of things.