Jiri Prochazka has built a career on not only being one of the best light heavyweights in the sport, but he’s also an incredibly exciting fighter with a style built for highlight reel finishes.
Taking big risks often comes along with big rewards, but Prochazka’s unorthodox approach can also put him in harm’s way from time to time. As he prepares for his fourth title fight on Saturday at UFC 327, Prochazka seeks to become a two-time champion while facing Carlos Ulberg in a battle between two fighters who are both well versed in vicious finishes.
But retired UFC veteran Matt Brown, who still holds the record for the most knockouts in welterweight history, believes that Prochazka’s go big or go home approach just isn’t sustainable long term.
“Jiri, you just never really know what to expect,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I think my biggest question with Jiri that I’ve had for a long time and I’m going to keep having — you can’t play around with non-fundamentals forever. At some point, that starts to catch up with you. I think we’ve seen that a little bit with Israel Adesanya, and we’ve seen it with Anderson Silva. It’s like the Naseem Hamed, when he wins it looks f*cking amazing. God that’s wild, it’s amazing you did that! [But] you can’t do it when you’re 45 years old. Fight in the way that Jiri does.
“The point is saying that is we don’t know when that time clock is going to hit, when the end is going to come for that. I know he’s still young, I know he’s not that old yet, but it can happen any time.”
Prochazka’s ability to inflict maximum damage from anywhere with a variety of moves is a prime reason why he’s remained near the top of the 205-pound division since he first arrived in the UFC.
He’s always embraced the chaos during his fights and that’s resulted in a very impressive record outside of two past losses to Alex Pereira. The problem is Brown can’t help but wonder if that risk-taking style has sacrificed Prochazka knowing how to stick to the basics, which is something he knows all fighters need to find longterm success.
“It’s good to evolve, too,” Brown said. “He could always have that part of him as part of his game. I don’t mean to be the critic — he’s accomplished more than I did in my career — but I don’t see where it lasts and I don’t see where he’s evolved much at all. He’s just done more of the same.”
Pitting Prochazka’s wild style against somebody like Ulberg, who has traditionally stuck to a more fundamentally sound striking attack, could give the first-time UFC title challenger a clear path to victory on Saturday.
“That’s where I lean a little bit towards Carlos Ulberg in this fight,” Brown explained. “He’s a little less variety in his striking, and I’m not going to say one-dimensional but less dimensional, if that’s a term, but my point in saying that is look Jiri can be figured out. Because when he came into the UFC, and he was on his way up, nobody had seen this before for the most part. Alex figured it out, which Alex is good at figuring out striking.
“But now it’s been seen, and I think if someone, these fundamental guys who have better fundamentals like an Ulberg, if they can game plan towards this, they should be able to figure it out. It’s just a matter of executing. I think that’s what Jiri does better than anything else. You might have a perfect game plan against it but to execute that game plan against this wildness and aggressiveness and the randomness of his game, it’s not an easy feat.”
Brown truly believes that Pereira created the perfect game plan to counter and cripple Prochazka’s unorthodox attacks and now it’s up to Ulberg to mimic that in the fight at UFC 327 on Saturday.
Obviously that’s easier said than done, but Brown acknowledges that as much as Prochazka gets praised for his seemingly unpredictable approach, there is a method to that madness. He believes now it’s up to Ulberg to prove he’s figured it out and the end result could be a championship victory on Saturday.
“That’s why I kind of go back to the blueprint has been written how to beat Jiri,” Brown said. “If someone like Ulberg, who I think is very good, and should be able to follow that blueprint.
“If he’s able to strategize the proper blueprint, and then go execute that blueprint, which is not always easy, not trying to downplay what it’s going to take to beat Jiri, but I think there is an actual blueprint there. If Carlos can execute on it, I think he should be able to get this done.”
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