Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira – Preview and Prediction

Jiri Prochazka returns to the octagon to face Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 295 in which the two men will fight for the vacant light heavyweight title.

Prochazka once ruled over the light heavyweight division, but an injury forced him to give up his title and sideline him for almost two years.

Pereira is a former kickboxing world champion who went on win the UFC middleweight title by knocking out Israel Adesanya.

The fight should be a fun striking matchup to watch as both men coming from striking backgrounds.

Here’s a preview and prediction of the fight. The preview can also be found in the video above.

Breakdown

Prochazka is coming into UFC 295 off of a long layoff so it’s hard to breakdown any recently.

Before his injury, he was really fun to watch. He’s an unorthodox fighter and he can hit you from any angle. Also, look out for his elbows as he throws them often.

Pereira is a great counter striker and hits with a lot of power. He’s also looking to do what his long time rival Adesanya couldn’t do which is win the title at 205 pounds.

Tale of of the Tape

Nobody has any short of advantage here as both men are within an inch of each other in every category.

Prochazka has a lot more MMA experience, but Pereira already one a UFC title despite only have 10 MMA fights so you can’t really look too far into that.

Oddsmakers

Close. Very close. However, they are giving the slight edge to Pereira.

He’s only -130 favorite so the oddsmakers aren’t too confident one way or another.

Prediction

Big question is how does Prochazka look after two years away from the octagon? While he’s been inactive, Pereira has been very active and very good.

If Prochazka looks like he did prior to the injury, he can really give Pereira problems with his high output as he’d constantly be walking Pereira down and landing strike after strike.

While Prochazka is an active striker, he is also unorthodox with his striking and that gave him some problems against Glover Teixeira, who took Prochazka down every time he’d try and do some short of spinning move.

Prochazka will have to watch with the unorthodox strikes. Yes, they do damage and have led him to a UFC title, but Pereira is a world champion kickboxer, who is an amazing counter striker.