Jiri Prochazka: 'I Need to Evolve to the Next Level, or Don’t Fight Again'

Jiri Prochazka ’s second opportunity against Alex Pereira didn’t bring many encouraging returns.

After being dropped at the end of the opening stanza, Prochazka was vanquished by a head kick and follow-up punches from Pereira just 13 seconds into Round 2 of their UFC 303 headlining bout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night. While Prochazka was also finished in their first meeting at UFC 295, he performed fairly well in the opening stanza and also had a legitimate gripe that the bout might have been stopped prematurely by referee Marc Goddard in the second period.

There were no such questions on Saturday night, and now it appears that “BJP has to do some soul searching before his next Octagon appearance.

“Hello everyone, thank you for all your support. Thanks to you Alex for the fight. You [were] better,” Prochazka said in a video on social media. “And only one thing goes on my mind: that I need to evolve to the next level — or don’t fight again. So simple, to be the strongest, this is the way. Thank you. See you in the gym.”



A former Rizin Fighting Federation champion, Prochazka won 13 consecutive fights from 2016 to 2022, capturing the UFC light heavyweight crown with a fifth-round submission of Glover Teixeira at UFC 275. He rebounded from his first loss to Pereira with a second-round stoppage of Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 300 before Saturday’s defeat.