Jiri Prochazka said he wants Ankalaev's head

[RichardHarrow]

Alex was on a winning streak and very coincidentally fell sick on the night he fought someone who was better than him.

 

[Chayanne]

Jiri is not what he used to be, logically age plays a role. The mind and mindset will always be 100%, body will become less and less with age and that is sometimes difficult to accept for an athlete

 

[EnthusiastCultivator]

Alex was on a winning streak and very coincidentally fell sick on the night he fought someone who was better than him.

Someone needs to make a book of excuses for Poatan

 

[RichardHarrow]

Someone needs to make a book of excuses for Poatan

Were these his words or other outlets ?

 

[ejazahmednit]

Were these his words or other outlets ?

I haven't seen Alex make any excuses
I dont understand why other people who lost to him seem so inclined to do the same.
That said if Pereira fights Ankalaev in August then Jiri vs Ulberg can happen in June to have a contender ready after August.

 

[FrappeDuRocma]

Whoever can fight Ankalaev soonest is the fight I want. Be it Jiri, pereira, or ulberg

No thanks, this guy is a can.

 

[HHJ]

If the UFC makes the Pereria/Ank rematch then Jiri should either fight Ulberg next or move to 185.

Obviously he will hold off on moving to 185, with all the upheaval going on at LHW right now

 

[Limeade]

View attachment 1088344
Wow, that was a savage answer! Jiri had also said in an interview that he could see Alex was injured watching him fight right in the first round and that Alex's activity saved Ankalaev in a fight Jiri said was 50/50.

Jiri should be the biggest star in the UFC

 

[JKS]

Were these his words or other outlets ?

Poatan never said a thing. Rogan and the media came out and said he was ill and fought with a hurt hand. Which may be true considering back in November articles came out that his hand was still hurt from the Rountree fight.

 

[Deltron 6060]

It's working.

Is it? Pretty sure the Poatan rematch will happen this summer. Jiri gonna wait around for a year hoping he's next? Jiri vs Ulberg makes sense, beating old Jan proves nothing.

 

[HHJ]

Is it? Pretty sure the Poatan rematch will happen this summer. Jiri gonna wait around for a year hoping he's next? Jiri vs Ulberg makes sense, beating old Jan proves nothing.

All I'm saying is, at LHW where opportunity and big interest is limited, Jiri is generating legit excitement by goin this route

 

[Feaser]

I love that fighters are Tweeting at each other in broken English.

 

[Arm Barbarian]

Even though I'm a big Poatan fan, I have no problem seeing Jiri get the next crack at the belt, particularly if Alex is rehabbing an injury for awhile.

Jiri always comes to bang, so it would be a fun scrap.

 

[Bork Neslar]

So he's saying he wants to get "head" from Ankalaev...

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

I'd like to see this fight next, book it. Jiri's fights are always fun and exciting to watch, doesn't matter if he wins or loses.. its pure violence. I'm always down to see it.

 

[Safton]

Since it seems true that Alex fought hurt and sick, plus he has been fighting way more often than Ankalaev, this, weakening his body by not having a proper time off (not a very long one ofc, but a respectable one), I rather see Jiri going straight to the title. Like I said, Alex also fought injured vs Khalil, and doing that later vs Ankalaev, 5 months later, while also having had massive weight cuts before in MW... He better take, like, 8 months to heal properly imo. He had such huge performances vs Hill and Jiri 2 because those were also fights he had no injury at all. Vs Jiri 2, that was the best shape Alex.

And Jiri got better after the second fight vs Pereira, the best Pereira has ever been. The Pereira vs Ankalaev was 50/50 to me, if Pereira were in top condition, I think he'd dominate, but eh. But Jiri, I have a feeling that he'll keep the pressure like vs Rakić, a fight he felt anger due to Rakić constant remarks on Jiri being a fake samurai and being fake, that Jiri took several leg kicks, and was like it seems even letting Rakić punch him sometimes, still he was an animal, brutalized Rakić. He even said that once he heard Rakić talking all those things, he knew he wouldn't fall to any attack, saying those were child's provocation, and that thus, he would just not fall and go through extreme lengths to beat him. Funny though, Jiri is younger than Rakić, younger than Ankalaev, younger than Ulberg... Haha

I don't know how much stock I put into claims of Alex being sick/injured/whatever. I'm not saying he wasn't, it's just that many fighters go into many fights not at 100% and it's always easy to make it known after one loses or looks bad, especially a previously dominant champ. I also think a big part of Ankalaev's success in the fight came down to the stylistic match-up and good gameplanning so much as Pereira not being at 100%.

The tricky part about Alex taking that much time off is that he's old... it's hard to take almost a year off and just sit around to "recover". Whatever you gain in terms of recovery could very well be lost by watching the last of your waning athleticism slip away.

 

[Luffy]

I don't know how much stock I put into claims of Alex being sick/injured/whatever. I'm not saying he wasn't, it's just that many fighters go into many fights not at 100% and it's always easy to make it known after one loses or looks bad, especially a previously dominant champ. I also think a big part of Ankalaev's success in the fight came down to the stylistic match-up and good gameplanning so much as Pereira not being at 100%.

The tricky part about Alex taking that much time off is that he's old... it's hard to take almost a year off and just sit around to "recover". Whatever you gain in terms of recovery could very well be lost by watching the last of your waning athleticism slip away.

Fair enough points. It's also a very good way to look into it.

Focusing more on whether he was injured and sick or that whether those were excuses, I think the injury stuff not coming from Alex is telling.

Alex didn't comment on it after the fight, nor in the press conference like many fighters do (Umar Nurmagomedov and Merab, for example. Islam Makhachev too, saying the gap between cutting weight until the fight wad too small in Australia, citing as one of the reasons he couldn't do better vs Volkanovski 1 ... Gustafsson saying, after the 2nd JJ fight, that a knee he gets form JJ in the first round, which Gus said was blow and had the fight stopped for less than a minute, made him fight way worse than ideally, ironically finishing the thinking with a "but it is what it is". Or JJ said he didn't train for Gus 1 hence the fight was that close.

What could be a "coping" stuff from Alex was him saying he felt he won the fight... Tbf tho, nor only does he have a point, as the fight was close, but he also has the right to voice his opinion. It's not like he was saying he was robbed, that the judges shouldn't judge again, that he felt wronged... Like Reyes acted, for example. Alex saying he felt he had won the fight, all while never bringing a performance - compromising physical condition, would actually show more like the opposite to the fans, and to Ankalaev... That he was there to win. In fact, DC, Chael etc were already almost making excuses for Alex if Alex lost when Alex traveled to Australia to coach Sean, with both DC and Chael "estimating" how many hours from a 3 weeks training that would mean that Alex was missing the training. If he could hop on that trian he could easily do that, saying "well, it's not an ideal preparation, but it's inevitable to me, being a superstar, worrying for my sister and training her for karate, Sean also was in my last camp, so I need to do the same... Alex actually got kinda bothered by ppl suggesting he wasn't training as usually, by saying the difference is that every place that he is, it is shown to the media now, so it's just a false perception, saying he was as ready as ever and that if he loses, it won't be because he didn't do his best in the camping, he said he was at his best. I think Joe Rogan bringing it and then media outlets supporting it instead of Alex ever talking about it is telling that it was likely true.

And honestly, I even wonder if Alex cared about it to the point of acting like that "I won!!"... Ofc he was sad to lose, of course he really wanted to win. But I think he is also one of the best fighters ever who best deals in situations like losing. His intense rivalry vs Izzy, the fact he was KO'd and then had Izzy throwing a slammer first a lá Ngannou when Alex was out cold... Then Alex's kids in the crowd crying, Izzy then pointing directly at Alex's kids and pretending to fall just like Alex moments before. With Izzy then saying he was teaching Alex's son a lesson since when Alex won the second kickboxing fight vs Izzy, Alex's son imitated the way Izzy fell when KO'd. The boy was a little kid by then. That was way more humiliating to Alex, the defeat, the thing with his son crying. When he was leaving the arena he even took his son, hugged him. As he did when he lost to Ankalaev and his son was crying...

Alex moved on from that, and got closer and made peaces with Izzy... He'd even troll Izzy when meeting Izzy sometimes like friends lol. When Ankalaev wrote the no Vaseline to Alex, Alex posted a reaction to the comment showing himself in the barbershop, with the barbershop shaving his beard clean, even joking like no beards to protect from punches next!! ... Like, there seems to have no disrespect between Alex and Ankalaev either. No intense rivalry. Both also wrote to each other praising each others' skills... And in other provocations, it seemed way lighter hearted as well, like old rivals lol. I thought it could even turn into a huge hatred thing with the things "Ankalalev" said on Twitter... But Alex didn't took that to the heart. He saw how Ankalaev expressed himself differently and did know nothing about English. Alex had already said that those things may bother him at the moment but he comes to quickly realize too that it's also a business, that the fighters want and need to market in way ppl will care more to draw more attentions... He said generally the champion who is loved and is winning have the luxury to go out as the good guy, but that the provocation is part of the game, since each fighter there want the belt, want $ as well.

 

[orca]

Jiri matches up well with Ank. If he can make it a chaotic fight he wins via 3-4rd TKO.

thats what i heard when he fought pereira make it chaotic
and he got slept 2x

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

ah man, that ain't very Tekken 2 of Jiri....

 

[Kwic]

Let's go for dat.