5. Welcome to the UFC, Jiri Prochazka
Rizin FF champ [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag] announced his octagon arrival in a spectacular manner when he knocked out former UFC title challenge Volkan Oezdemir in utterly devastating fashion. With that, there’s a new player on the scene at light heavyweight.
Although Prochazka showed some vulnerability and sloppiness in the bout that could cost him against higher ranked opponents, it worked to his benefit against Oezdemir. He managed to draw Oezdemir into the type of fight he wanted, then finished it with a highlight-reel strike early in the second round.
Prochazka is now 20-1-1 in his past 22 fights. He took out a top-10 name in his octagon debut, and now he can only go up from here. There’s nothing but killers occupying the upper echelon of 205 pounds, and it would be fun to see Prochazka fight anyone from Jon Jones to Dominick Reyes to Thiago Santos to Anthony Smith and anyone in between.
As far as UFC debuts go, Prochazka ranks up there with the best in recent memory.
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