Is Anyone looking at tomorrow as Jiris first title defence...?

[Ahmed Masood]

as opposed to a vacant title fight? Jiri technically never lost the belt as a champion, and people confuse the fact that he honourably vacated the title rather than being stripped of it. I always saw the Blachowicz-Anakalev and Hill-Glover fights as interim titles in a way, and that the winner i.e. Jamhal hill would eventually UNIFY with Jiri when he came back. so imo, Jiri is the defending champ and Pereira is his first title defence.

Also, if you believe that Jones Robbed reyes back in the day, technically Jiri is the lineal champ as well since he beat Glover, who beat Jan, who beat Reyes who "beat" Jones, so there's some nice continuity to LHW there.

Thoughts Sherbros? in your mind, is this a vacant title fight or a first title defence for Prochazka?

P.s. Also, another crazy stat, Since Jiri last fought for the belt, Pereira has fought 4x, going 3-1. Those bouts were:
a Ko over the future MW champ Strickland in a title eliminator bout
a Tko over the then MW champ adesanya,
A KO loss to Adesanya in a rematch
A LHW title eliminator victory over the former LHW champ Jan.

Fun fact, the last time a "challenger" fought 4x since the "reigning champ" last fought was Rob-Izzy 1 (Izzy fought 4x after Rob defeated Romero in the rematch). We saw how that fight went between the challenger kickboxer and unique MMA style champ. Could be a hint for how tomorrow will go?

 

[Ares Black]

Pretty much everyone is, I should think

 

[ferrisjso]

Lineally it sorta is. Thats a fair way to look at it even if it is technically inaccurate.
.

 

[JosephTessaro]

Sure. Why not.

 

[Jose Beehive]

I'm not because that is not what's happening.

 

[CombatCyborg]

In a way, but if he hadn't been injured he would have defended against Jamahal or someone else already.

 

[Dandy Chiggins]

No

 

[MMA_AZ]

Injured and stripped of the title and there's been 2 title fights since so no, not at all

 

[Hdfi]

kinda yes, he's the lineal champion.

 

[scytheavatar]

Jiri after his catastrophic shoulder injury is very unlikely to be the same Jiri as the one before it. I see the Jiri fighting tomorrow as not the same Jiri who became champ.

 

[MigitAs]

Jiri can get it done tomorrow for sure, and most would consider it a defence imo.

 

[CieloLuce]

No. He vacated the belt and Hill won it.

 

[FreedomCricket]

No.

 

[kingofthecans]

Lineally it sorta is. Thats a fair way to look at it even if it is technically inaccurate.
.

I'm in this camp.

 

[Mike]

Nah

 

[Mammothman]

It really doesn't matter to me, still would count as 2 title wins for me.

 

[RonDante]

That thing about jones is funny cause santos was the uncrowned king, who then lost to glover, and reyes was kind of uncrowned, then beat by jan, then glover beats jan and the 3 lines come together. Similar with condit and lawler, condit immediately loses to maia, whose next loss is to woodley

 

[ferrisjso]

It really doesn't matter to me, still would count as 2 title wins for me.

It counts as 2 title wins regardless. Hes talking about it counting as a defense which it technically won't even though if Jiri hadn't been stripped it would.

 

[Thatlookinhiseyes]

It counts as 2 title wins regardless. Hes talking about it counting as a defense which it technically won't even though if Jiri hadn't been stripped it would.

Jiri didn’t get stripped. He vacated

 

[Bobby Boulders]