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The UFC took a night off this past weekend, ceding the spotlight to Francis Ngannou and his boxing debut against WBC boxing champion Tyson Fury. It was an electric night for the former king of the UFC’s heavyweight division, walking out with spirited split decision loss in a fight many felt he should have won. But, even if Ngannou proved the UFC and his doubters wrong, that doesn’t mean the world’s largest MMA promotion doesn’t still have some big fights of their own on the horizon.
Just around the corner, in fact, is UFC 295, going down next month in New York, NY. There, the PPV main event is expected to showcase a light heavyweight title fight between former LHW champion Jiri Prochazka, and former MW king Alex Pereira. It’s an action-forward matchup that should be a thrill for fans.
Henry Cejudo breaks down Jiri Prochazka
With the fight on our immediate Horizon, Henry Cejudo shared his thoughts about Jiri Prochazka, and his skills inside the Octagon. Cejudo made his return to competition this past May after a three year retirement from MMA. During his time off, however, ‘Triple C’ made a name for himself, both coaching fighters and providing fans with insight into the technical side of mixed martial arts.
In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube Channel, Cejudo took some time to talk about Prochazka’s technique. Or notably, his lack of it on the defensive end.
“The technique, as good as you are with everything, there’s one area where I feel like you really need to get better at – two areas,” Henry Cejudo remarked (transcript via MMA Junkie). “Your defense, with your hands: I don’t like seeing you get hit because that may cost you against a guy like Alex Pereira. Then the other thing, too, is your takedown defense. Your takedown defense is still a little suspect.”
“If there’s an area where I feel like he really needs to get better, it’s (technique) – particularly his defense. And the other thing is his takedown defense.”
Jiri Prochazka’s weird training
If Jiri Prochazka’s game seems a little unorthodox, or perhaps has a few more holes in it than it feels like it should, that’s probably because the fighter himself seems to take a very unorthodox route to fight training. Back in October of last year, ‘Denisa’ made headlines when he announced that he had recently spent three days in total darkness, meditating and exploring his own psyche.
“That’s all in darkness for three days, and there you can work with your demons and train what you want. I don’t want to talk about a lot, because that’s like my personal things,” Prochazka explained.
“That’s the biggest fun, because you have to go to the point where time is ending, and I can’t speak about that, because it’s so, not intense, for me, these things are so personal … and holy.”
Prochazka has also trumpeted the value of traditional martial arts training techniques like punching a tree 500x a day or taking a page out of Conor McGregor’s book and doing some movement and form training, Ido Portal style.
UFC 295 takes place on November 11th at Madison Square Garden. Originally intended to be headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones, the event will now feature Prochazka vs. Pereira atop the card. An interim heavyweight title fight between top contenders Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall is expected for the co-main event.
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