Jiri
Prochazka wasn’t at his best leading up to his gold bid against
Alex
Pereira at
UFC 295 in November.
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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.