Jiri Prochazka announces he will fight Glover Teixeira for the UFC light heavyweight title - "We are going to take the belt"
Jiri Prochazka has asserted that he will face Glover Teixeira for the UFC light heavyweight championship on May 7th.
ESPN's Brett Okamoto first reported that Teixeira will defend his title against Prochazka at the UFC 274 event on May 7th.
The Brazilian champ officially has his next assignment. Glover Teixeira (@gloverteixeira) vs. Jiri Prochazka (@jiri_bjp) is a go for UFC 274 on May 7. Tough first title defense, but Glover’s entire road to this title has been tough. https://t.co/vvlJkwHRt1
Jiri Prochazka has now taken to Twitter to seemingly confirm the news. ‘Denisa’ posted a tweet that reads:
“Its here! We are going to take the belt, directly! 7/5 vs @gloverteixeira @ufc”
🏻
Its here! We are going to take the belt, directly! ⚡️🙏🏻⚡️
7/5 vs @gloverteixeira @ufc https://t.co/91VHj37jTq
Jiri Prochazka’s most recent bout was a second round KO win over Dominick Reyes at UFC Vegas 25 in May 2021. Prochazka is on an impressive 12-fight win streak. Many in the MMA community have touted the Czech native as a future UFC light heavyweight champion. The 29-year-old has been heralded amongst the most innovative strikers and dangerous fighters in MMA today.
Meanwhile, Glover Teixeira’s most recent fight witnessed him defeat Jan Blachowicz via second round submission at UFC 267 in October 2021. The victory earned the Brazilian the UFC light heavyweight title as well as the distinction of being the oldest first-time UFC champion. The 42-year-old is hailed by many as one of the best grapplers and well-rounded MMA combatants in the sport.
Henry Cejudo on helping Jiri Prochazka train for his upcoming fight
Following Teixeira’s win at UFC 267, the MMA community was rife with speculation that the Brazilian fighter’s first title defense would be a fight against Prochazka.
As a result, Prochazka recently announced that he’ll be training with MMA legend and Olympic gold-medalist Henry Cejudo at the Fight Ready gym in Arizona.
The consensus is that training with ‘Triple C’ could tremendously benefit Prochazka, particularly in the grappling realm against Teixeira.
In an edition of The Triple C & Schmo Show, Cejudo touched upon this and explained:
"I have actually been speaking to Jiri and uh, you know he really took it too hard. The only fighter that I have reached out to come and train with me because I asked, coach [Eddie Cha] who is it that you want to come over here that could potentially win the belt? And he says Jiri... so I went out of my way, I wrote to him... He said he wants to come out to Fight Ready next month and he wants Triple C and the team to help him with his fight camp"
UFC light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira will defend his title against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 274 on May 7th. Fans can expect additional details regarding UFC 274 to unravel in the days to come.
Furthermore, the official UFC on BT Sport Instagram account has also announced the aforementioned matchup.