Jiri Prochazka could have taken Alex Pereira’s place against Magomed Ankalaev.
The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion is one of the few fighters to never lose their title in the Octagon, having vacated the championship when he was sidelined with an injury in Nov. 2022.
Jiri Prochazka has been trying to get his title back ever since, but was unsuccessful in two attempts against his greatest rival Alex Pereira.
Although he was 0-2 against Pereira, things started to look up for Prochazka after he knocked out Jamahal Hill at UFC 311. Months later at UFC 313, a new champion was crowned in Magomed Ankalaev and all of a sudden, title contention wasn’t out of the question for Prochazka.
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Jiri Prochazka’s manager says UFC reached out for Magomed Ankalaev title fight at UFC 317
Pereira, one of the UFC’s biggest draws today, was thought to be the front-runner for Ankalaev with June 28th at UFC 317 reportedly offered as a date.
The rematch doesn’t look to be happening anytime soon as ‘Poatan’ recently made headlines in a now-deleted post on ‘X’ speaking on his complicated negotiations with the UFC, later claiming it was a hacker.
On The Ariel Helwani Show, Prochazka’s manager Tim Simpson was asked if the UFC approached Prochazka about fighting Ankalaev in Pereira’s stead.
“I had heard that [Pereira] was upset because they were saying, hey, if you can’t fight on on this particular day, I think International Fight Week, that they were talking about Jiri vs. Magomed. Is that accurate?” Helwani asked on Wednesday.
“Yes, they inquired about if Jiri could do it,” Simpson confirmed.
“[The UFC] just wanna know what their options are and I felt like it may not have been necessarily an option for sure.”
Jiri Prochazka chose university exams over UFC title fight
Pereira looks to return to the negotiation table later this year, opting out of a short-notice title fight at UFC 317.
According to his manager, Prochazka is putting his education first with university exams coming up at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic.
“He’s doing his exams. That’s legit,” Simpson said of Prochazka’s reason for not fighting at UFC 317.
“He’s deferred them so many times. Like, man, ‘I can’t defer this exam…’
“So, he wants to finish the exams. But also, he’s done a lot [of] short notice stuff for them before,” Simpson referenced Prochazka fighting Pereira on two weeks’ notice at UFC 303 the year prior.
“And he’s like, ‘man…’ When he gets full proper [training] camps, he looks so much better because he’s so diligent with his body. So, I don’t think he’s gonna be a short notice guy anytime soon.”