Jiri Prochazka responds to UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz's call-out
Jiri Prochazka competed at UFC Vegas 25 on May 1, 2021, against Dominick Reyes.
Jiri Prochazka emerged victorious with a stunning spinning back elbow knockout win over the former two-time light heavyweight title challenger. This was his second fight in the UFC, after having gone through Volkan Oezdemir on his debut bout at UFC 251 last year with a second-round KO.
You can take a look at Jiri Prochazka's knockout of Dominick Reyes below:
After the sublime performance, Jan Blachowicz offered to fight Jiri Prochazka in Cieszyn, a Polish town located near the border of the Czech Republic. Jan Blachowicz is from Poland and Jiri Prochazka is from the Czech Republic, which makes the midway location of the town quite symbolic.
Jiri Prochazka has now responded to Jan Blachowicz's call-out, saying that he is up for the battle if the champion successfully defends his belt against Glover Teixeira.
Jan Blachowicz is scheduled to face Glover Teixeira at UFC 266 on September 4, 2021, to try and retain his 205-pounds title for the second time. He earned a unanimous decision win over middleweight king Israel Adesanya in his first title defense.
He accidentally confused his fans by calling out Jiri Prochazka, as they thought that the Polish champion would not fight Glover Teixeira. Jan Blachowicz cleared the air on that by sending out a second tweet, where he clarified that his previous post was in the context of Slavic humor and that he was keeping his word of fighting Glover Teixeira next, as per schedule..
Jiri Prochazka is not worried about title shots
Even though Jiri Prochazka has accepted Jan Blachowicz's offer to fight, he made it clear in the UFC Vegas 25 post-event press conference that he is not too worried about title shots. The 'journey' is much more important to him, and so is the opportunity to fight against tough opponents inside the octagon.
"Yeah, little bit nerves. But for me it's not these title shots and the fighting and matchmaking for me, it's not so important me. What's important is the journey - to enjoy the tough opponents, to enjoy sharing the cage with hard opponents, and that's why I like it. And this fight was great, but I enjoy that. I enjoyed Dominick's fight IQ. I have new skills that I need to learn, that I need to work for," Jiri Prochazka said.
Jiri Prochazka also joked about how he got the idea for the spinning back elbow knockout thanks to his 'antenna'-like hairstyle.