UFC 320 was a night full of spectacles, not just in the light heavyweight championship headline but also in the light heavyweight division, as two former contenders, Jiri Prochazka and Khalil Rountree Jr., went toe to toe.
The fight was a battle of the fittest, with both fighters giving as much as they got. In the end, Prochazka emerged victorious after delivering a vicious beating that knocked Rountree Jr. out in the third round. The brutal KO left Rountree Jr. incapacitated and forced officials to call him out of the octagon. Following his win, Prochazka had a few words for his opponent.
“The first thing I want to say to Khalil: Thank you,” Prochazka told MMA Fighting. “Thank you for the amazing fight. Thank you, because every time you share the cage with some opponents, he’s also your teacher because he’s teaching you how to overcome him, how to overcome his attacks, how to learn, how to be better, because that’s what we are doing. … I’m sharpening him, he’s sharpening me.
“That’s the point of fighting, to be better, to be better as humans, and to find a way to overcome somebody, even ourselves, by our performance. To find a way to be better in our performance, to be better than our opponents. … I’m thankful to him for sharing the cage with me, especially because there are not too many opponents as dynamic and tough as him.”
Jiri Prochazka hopes the win puts him in position to fight for the light heavyweight title. During a post-fight interview, he revealed that he noticed Magomed Ankalaev wasn’t at his best during his fight with Alex Pereira.
“In [UFC] PI, I didn’t see him train too much, but I saw him before the fight and in the fight, and I saw him like he’s catching himself back. Little step back, little step back, then I was like, ‘Man, he’s not right, something’s wrong.’ He’s so careful, not like last time, [when] he was going forward, up and down, changing levels, self-confidence. He was a totally different person.”
Prochazka said he’s ready for whatever comes next but admitted he still has a lot to work on after watching his bout with Rountree Jr.
“I just saw that fight and I was, I don’t want to say disgusted by my performance, but I want to say I was better than what I showed. I really worked to show my improvement, to show what I’ve worked on, to be much better in counter timing and working with the space between us, and about the movement.
“ But in the end, I just had to make a big step back down to the basics, hard work, total hunting, and just hard work. Going through a fighter like Khalil just by hard work. Nothing else. Just to hunt him, and this is something that I don’t like to do in sparring or in fighting because it’s high risk. So, this for me was like a last option, and after two rounds, what I wanted to find was some good tactics, some good strategy to end it, to catch him, to find some setup for Khalil. I just had to go back to the basics because it was really necessary. It was the last round. I had to end Khalil by knockout. I had to end him.
“The only possibility was to win by knockout, so that’s why I’m happy that I found a way.”
Jiri Prochazka continues to prove why he’s one of the most dangerous fighters in the division. With momentum on his side, fans can expect to see him back in title contention soon.
