The first thing I noticed was how massive Pereira was, even though Procházka is about the same size on paper. (In the first face-off, Procházka looked a bit bigger. In the actual face-off, Pereira looked bigger.) However, in the cage, Pereira dwarfed Procházka from every angle.
Like everyone else has said, it's astonishing Pereira has made MW for so many years. Aside from now being a candidate for GOAT prizefighter, Pereira might well be the all-time GOAT weight-cutter. That said,
ROUND 1:
Both seem a little tentative, but Pereira looked like the true professional, while Procházka appeared amateurish and perplexed at
the size of Pereira, in particular Pereira's
stance, and Alex' ability to use
his forearms as a guard. Once Pereira began his calf-attack, he was clearly damaging and owning Procházka. Procházka began to panic wrestle, where Pereira threatened a neck attack, but Jiri finally got the takedown. Couldn't do anything with it though, and Alex was back up. (All 3 judges gave the round to Procházka, but Pereira did
by far more damage. As such, I gave Pereira Round 1.)
ROUND 2:
Both again come out a little tentative for the first minute. In the second minute, Alex lands a jab, a roundhouse kick, followed by calf kick — all three of which were acknowledged by Procházka in succession. Jiri is wary, confused, and continuing to look tentative — and then he starts to go for it. Procházka starts looking a little more urgent, and catches Pereira on the chin with a left hook, then a right hand. Procházka has achieved the forward momentum "chaos state" in which he excels. Several wild shots caught Pereira (but none of them landed completely flush). Still, the optics were bad for Alex.
It appeared Jiri was starting to take over — but you could see Alex kept reading him, timing him, figuring him out. They got into the chaotic "fence fight," with Procházka landing hard overhand right, followed by a left hook.
The difference was Alex' professionalism. He would just clinch Jiri, slow him down, knee him to the body. Whereas a guy like Reyes, would get "lost in the chaos," Alex
controlled the chaos, settled it down. Then Alex would calmly move laterally, get out from against the fence, and begin his own momentum anew, once again launching the calf kicks.
With one minute left, Jiri began his third or fourth blitz, clipping Alex 2 to 3 times, but Alex just took them, not even blinking, because they were grazing, and you could see Alex was timing Jiri's entry — and this time Alex caught Procházka with a one-two: a grazing right that hit the back of Jiri's neck, and that tight inside left hook that forced Jiri's chin straight to the back of his head.
- The Knockout: Jiri buckled, went straight down to his knees, then kind of hugged Pereira's thighs, trying to hide his head against Pereira's right hip. Jiri was clearly conscious at this point, but obviously dazed. Pereira then launched a series of hammer fists to the left side of Jiri's head — but when Pereira switched to elbows to the temple is when the actual KO came. It could clearly be seen that Procházka had his hands clasped around Pereira's legs, and then his hands went completely limp and he fell backwards, out, with Pereira in a mounted position. I thought the referee stoppage was premature at first, but when you watch the replay, it was a legit KO for Pereira. Still, Jiri recovered fairly quickly (because the ref pushed Alex away) — but it's highly doubtful Jiri would have survived, had Alex been allowed to bring elbows on his dazed skull.
In the end, Alex is now a 2x World Champion, in 2 different fighting organizations, which makes him a truly unique fight combatant. GOAT talks will always exist, but I think Pereira has inserted himself in this list, based on these accomplishments. You can argue that Alex' grappling isn't elite, but it has shown to be enough
not to get finished, and every time he gets up marks the beginning of the end for his opponent. (Opponents appear to wear themselves out trying to finish Alex, because of his size and strength, and then become "sitting ducks" for Alex' target practice.)
Finally, Jiri Procházka showed class, admitting he was KO'd — and also thanking Alex for the life lesson. Procházka's reckless style almost made him look amateurish against Pereira, and it was clear he was totally unprepared for Pereira's elite leg attacks. Since Jiri is a martial artist, I'm wondering if he's going to try to incorporate this into his style.
Fun fight, but even though I think the stoppage was legit, I still wish it would've gone on longer to remove any shadow of a doubt.
