Before Alex Pereira could avenge his loss to Magomed Ankalaev, Jiri Prochaska saw the writing on the wall.
In the main event of UFC 320 earlier this month, Pereira accomplished just that, regaining the light heavyweight title with an 80-second TKO victory over Ankalaev. Prochazka, who also picked up a stoppage victory over Khalil Rountree in this event, was asked if he was surprised that Pereira seemed to win so easily, but after encountering both fighters earlier in the week, Prochazka’s crystal ball read Pereira’s win all the way.
“No, no, I wasn’t that surprised,” Prochaska told MMA Fighting. Because when I saw Alex at (UFC Performance Institute), I saw how he was in shape and how he was training. And, yeah, I saw Alex’s spirit and Ankalaev’s spirit, and I said to myself, “Oh, this seems like a different story than before.”
“Their first game, when I watched it, I really thought, ‘Oh, this is something bad for him, he’s just holding himself back a little bit. So I’m glad he won, but that’s it.’
After the event, Ankalaev’s team revealed that Ankalaev had injured his ribs before the fight, to which Pereira responded that he was dealing with a physical ailment of his own.
While Pereira looked sharp and focused, Prochazka said he didn’t see the same confidence in Ankalaev compared to their first matchup, where he defeated Pereira for the title at UFC 313 in March.
“At PI (in) it didn’t seem like he was training too much,” Proachaska said. “But I saw him before the game, and during the game, when I saw him drive himself back, go back, inch back, inch back, I thought he was wrong. Something was wrong, so he’s very cautious. He was very cautious, unlike last time, moving forward, going up and down, changing levels, confident. He was a completely, completely different person.”
Prochaska was very emotional following Pereira’s victory. This is because the dream scenario for “BJP” is to become a two-time light heavyweight champion and achieve that goal by defeating “Poitan,” who has two KO wins in the series.
If Prochaska had to choose, it would be to get that title back and do the right thing the second time around.
“Whatever[the UFC wants to do],” Prochaska explained. “Right now, what I want is to fight Alex (for the third time). And I’m ready to fight anyone, but what I really think and what I know right now is that I’m ready to win the title. (I’m ready) to take that opportunity back to the Czech Republic. And I’m going to go for it.”