Whilst the majority of MMA fans are siding with Alex Pereira, former UFC champion Kamaru Usman is backing Jiri Prochazka to earn the upset win.
The highly-anticipated main event of UFC 303 between light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and former 205lb king Jiri Prochazka has decidedly split the MMA community, with the bookies having Poatan as the slight favorite over BJP. The ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ disagrees.
Kamaru Usman is giving the edge to Jiri Prochazka over Alex Pereira
Breaking down the UFC 303 main card via the Pound-4-Pound Podcast, former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman revealed that he’s leaning towards Jiri Prochazka to earn the underdog win this weekend at UFC 303.
“Listen, I had to go back and watch that fight again and Jiri Prochazka is the favorite here, he’s the favorite to me going into this fight – yeah, he lost that [first] fight, but he’s the favorite [in the rematch].”
Firstly, Usman explained that whilst “it’s a good thing” that Alex Pereira is constantly in training and remains in shape, he understands from personal experience that when you’re a UFC champion, you are naturally more distracted when it comes to fight prep.
“I do know [that] definitely does hurt you when you are the champion… On your road to become champion all you have to do is stay home and train, no one is really requesting for you that much ‘Hey fly here, do an appearance here, do an appearance there’, all you’re doing is training.
“But when you become champion, you start getting all of these opportunities which is great, that’s what we dream of, but it takes you away from that training session, that extra time thinking about how to become champion.”
Whilst there might be some merit to the idea that Prochazka benefits from a short-notice fight offer more than Pereira, who was in Australia on a media tour when he got the call to save UFC 303, the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ actually took his prediction back to their first fight back.
“If we have to look into that last fight they had; obviously, Israel Adesanya showed the blueprint of how to get that job done but Jiri Prochazka was putting on kind of a masterclass.”
Although the term ‘masterclass’ might be a slight exaggeration from the former champion, it’s important to remember that Prochazka did indeed win the first round 10-9 on all three of the judges’ scorecards.
“Alex Pereira is one of the most dangerous guys if he’s able to come forward, slip a punch and counter with his hands semi-down, slip and counter.
“But when he has to go backwards like Jiri Prochazka was doing to him, landing multiple strikes, that fight looked like Jiri was going to get the job done early.”
The former pound-for-pound king also pointed to the fact that Prochazka was able to secure one of three takedown attempts, racking up around 2 minutes and 45 seconds of control time.
“He got multiple takedowns, and he looked like he knew what he was doing,” exclaimed Usman, adding how BJP “looked like the more complete mixed martial artist for sure.”
Despite losing the chance to reclaim his light heavyweight title via second-round TKO, Usman noted that if Prochazka can be more cautious when entering into range, “if he makes that minor adjustment, I think he’s the favorite in this fight… God darn it, I can’t wait for this fight!”
Alex Pereira vs Jiri Prochazka 1 – By the numbers
The following stats have been provided by UFC Stats, showcasing the first fight between Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira ‘by the numbers’.
| Jiri Prochazka | Alex Pereira | |
| Significant Strikes | 30 / 53 (56%) | 38 / 61 (62%) |
| Total Strikes | 44 / 70 | 49 / 72 |
| Takedowns | 1 / 3 | 0 / 0 |
| Control Time | 2:45 | 0:08 |
| Head Strikes | 18 / 37 | 21 / 38 |
| Body Strikes | 7 / 10 | 5 / 8 |
| Leg Strikes | 5 / 6 | 12 / 15 |
| Distance Strikes | 26 / 49 | 22 / 43 |
| Clinch Strikes | 2 / 2 | 4 / 4 |
| Ground Strikes | 2 / 2 | 12 / 14 |
Alex Pereira secured the knockout victory at 4:08 of the second round; the Brazilian superstar returns to action to rematch Prochazka in the main event of this weekend’s UFC 303 PPV live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.