UFC 303 witnessed one of the craziest fights of the promotion which was a rematch between Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka. Both of them gave an incredible performance and the ‘Poatan’ astonished the fans with his strategic fighting style as he took down the ‘Czech Samurai’ with an amazing KO to his head. The entire UFC World was busy speculating about the impact of the Brazilian kick and one of them was former MMA fighter, Daniel Cormier. He discussed the intensity of Pereira’s kick which made his opponent delirious for a moment.
Daniel Cormier commented on Jiri Prochazka’s injured state.
Prochazka (30-4-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) rematched Pereira (10-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) and fought tooth and nail in UFC 303. After being KO-ed by the fighter in the light heavyweight title at UFC 295, Prochazka reclaimed his position by giving a KO to Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 300. Just like Pereira, Rakic had hurt Prochazka with leg kicks but he did not budge.
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However, in the latest short-notice fight, Prochazka was the victim of Poatan’s amazing fighting stance. Cormier, on his YouTube channel, talked about how hurt Prochazka was.
“The kicks were effective, and at the very end of the first round like clockwork left hook lands, boom down goes Jiri. Jiri was hurt so bad, at the end of the first round he was waving at Alex like ‘Come on grapple with me, grapple with me.’ He didn’t even realize that the bell had rang and the round was over. The second round starts, Pereira comes out, and switch kicks knock Jiri down. Jiri falls look, it’s so scary when he’s finishing people, that I turn into a Karen. Start yelling please stop the fighter, stop the fight it’s over,” Daniel Cormier said.
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According to DC, the ‘Czech Samurai’ was hurt so badly in his head that he lost sense of time for a moment. Cormier had advised Prochazka previously and had explained that even though he could be determined and KO Rakic, that same trick would not work against Alex Pereira. Even Mike Tyson’s ex-coach warned the fighter and complimented Pereira’s fight IQ.
Brett Okamoto gives an opinion on the UFC 303 fight.
During his conversation with ESPN, Okamoto dissected the process of the KO sent to ‘Czech Samurai’ that made him tumble down. The famous boxing coach was awestruck by Pereira’s fighting techniques and his approach to the fight as pointed out that Prochazka did not expect his opponent to send that hiking and was expecting a low kick.
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“But, he’s so smart, he’s so cerebral because he’s, he destroys your legs underneath. And then in the second round, I don’t know if anyone noticed that, where, where Jiri was putting his arms down for a low kick and it came high. A lot of people don’t, didn’t even see that.” Okamoto said.
The impact of the Brazilian’s kick was enough to send Prochazka to the ground especially when he was not expecting it to be a high kick. What are your thoughts on this amazing end to the fight? Do you agree with the veterans?