Getty Jiri Prochazka prepares to fight Glover Teixeira.
UFC light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka is ready to avenge ‘one of the worst performances’ of his career against Glover Teixeira.
Prochazka is set to clash with former 205-pound titleholder Teixeira in a rematch scheduled for UFC 282 on Dec. 10 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. He decided to give Teixeira an immediate second outing after a close-fought first encounter in Jun. at UFC 275. Teixeira appeared to be on his way to retaining his title until Prochazka locked in a rear-naked choke to force the tap less than 30 seconds from the final bell.
It marked one of the best light heavyweight fights of all time in the UFC, with both men putting on a Fight of the Year-worthy performance.
Although he managed to win, Prochazka was not happy with his performance. He had promised former champion Jan Blachowicz a title shot going into his last bout. ‘BJP’ indicated he might need a detour to decisively beat Teixeira before moving on to other contenders.
Prochazka Wants To Prove He Can Do Better
In an appearance on “The MMA Hour” with Ariel Helwani, Prochazka opened up about his motivations behind getting the rematch with Teixeira.
“Finally, this time I’m glad for what I decided for that and I just want to show my best performance,” Prochazka said (transcribed by Middle Easy). “In the first fight, that was one of the worst performances of all of my fights. I’m saying that from… I mean that my attitude, I know I can do that better, and like I said, Glover deserves the rematch because this fight was 50/50 so I just accept the challenge.”
‘Denisa’ feels confident just under two months away from the bout and talked about the next phase in his preparation.
“For me, yeah. I’m keeping myself constantly in the inner work so now I just push the conditioning. The preparation and the sparring preparation.”
Prochazka Wants To Show He’s the ‘True Champion’
With only three outings under the banner, Prochazka is already the champion in the most elite mixed martial arts organization in the world. The 30-year-old ‘Samurai’ shared how his life changed after becoming the first Czech to hold a UFC belt.
“Yeah, the last one in June, I had to check these things I had to change in myself to help to see other guys in my weight division and all of the guys in the UFC how to look for them right now. That’s what I have to accept. Right now, I’m the champion and I had to rebuild all the things around me. All the people around me… My friends had to understand it right now because I had to change a lot of things. What I’m really doing. My habits, work. What I’m normally doing and that’s how I’m going into the fight.
“Like a champion and Glover is a challenger right now and that’s what I will show him. Why I’m the champion, what is the true attitude of a champion. It’s very simple. I just want to be the true champion and show it in full power.”