Volkan Oezdemir welcomes RIZIN champ Jiri Prochazka at UFC 251
Former RIZIN light heavyweight champion, Jiri Prochazka will be making his UFC debut at UFC 251 on July 11 against Volkan Oezdemir.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was first to report the news of the matchup and the date. The event is rumored to take place at Fight Island and will be the first event of July where the hope is, the card will have three title fights on it. Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway 2 was reported yesterday while Petr Yan vs. Jose Aldo and a Kamaru Usman title defense are expected to be the other two title fights.
Volkan Oezdemir is currently on a two-fight winning streak after losing three in a row from January of 2018 to March of 2019. Last time out, he edged out a split decision win over Aleksandar Rakic at UFC Busan. In the fight before, he knocked out Ilir Latifi at UFC Uruguay.
The Swiss native is currently is 5-3 inside the Octagon. At UFC 220 he lost by TKO to Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight title. His other two losses came by submission against Anthony Smith and a controversial decision loss to Dominick Reyes. Oezdemier is currently ranked seventh in the light heavyweight division.
Jiri Prochazka, meanwhile, will be making his UFC debut on July 11. The former RIZIN champ was rumored to defend his belt against Bellator champion, Ryan Bader. Yet, the fight never came to fruition and Prochazka left RIZIN and signed with the UFC.
In his career, the 27-year-old is riding a 10-fight winning streak where last time out he scored a first-round knockout win over C.B. Dollaway. During his winning streak, he has notable wins over Fabio Maldonado, King Mo Lawal, Jake Heun, and Karl Albrektsson. He also has a notable win over Vadim Nemkov, Darko Stosic, and Satoshi Ishii.
The winner of Oezdemir-Prochazka should enter the top-five of the light heavyweight division and be a win or two away from the title shot.
