Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jiří Procházka wasn’t pleased to be told of one topic that came up during the broadcast of his recent victory.
Procházka was among the biggest winners to emerge from Saturday’s UFC 311 pay-per-view in Inglewood, California, where he got the better of a fellow ex-titleholder in Jamahal Hill to reignite his hopes of a second title reign.
The Czech fan favorite had his hand raised in an entertaining affair, following up multiple knockdowns with a fight-ending flurry toward the end of the third and final round.
During and after the bout, “BJP” was widely praised for seemingly displaying an improved defensive game, especially in regards to his head movement.
But during his post-fight press conference, Procházka was still unhappy to hear of the same concerns being raised by the broadcast team when it comes to one element of his approach — keeping his hands down.
“F*ck them. I worked on that so much,” Procházka said. “(People) messaged me every day, ‘You have to keep your hands up.’ So OK, I will do that for this fight. I will keep the hands up, especially for this night.
“(I keep my hand down because) I believe in my senses. I believe in my feeling in a fight – in my head movement. That’s why I can keep the hands down,” Procházka continued. “To be honest, in the last fight with Alex (Pereira), I was a little bit too hands down. So this is something I’ve worked on. I want to see the video from the fight (against Hill), because I believe that I (kept my hands up).”
With such a style being widely branded counter-productive in his two efforts opposite Alex Pereira, perhaps Procházka will plan on putting even more emphasis on staying defensively responsible should his wish to meet “Poatan” for a third time come to fruition down the line.
