A major light heavyweight scrap is being targeted for February of next year with Dominick Reyes set to take on Jiri Prochazka.
As reported by ESPN earlier today, Dana White has disclosed that a bout between Dominick Reyes and Jiri Prochazka is being planned to headline a February 27 Fight Night event. This is currently the only bout reported for the event next year.
It was not long ago that Dominick Reyes was considered the uncrowned light heavyweight champion after his controversial loss to Jon Jones at UFC 247. Many media members and fans alike scored the first three rounds for Reyes and believe that he was the rightful winner of the bout.
Dominick Reyes took this confidence and partial momentum with him into his vacant world championship bout with Jan Blachowicz at UFC 253 but came out on the losing end, being finished for the first time in his career. Reyes will return to the main event in February with an opportunity to work his way back up to another world title shot and this time leave opinions out of it and bottle the momentum for a more long-term manifestation.
Jiri Prochazka made his UFC debut with 30 professional fights already under his belt. The debut was a resounding success, as he would knock out former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir in the second round. Knocking out Volkan Oezdemir is no easy feat, as Dominick Reys can attest. Only Daniel Cormier has been able to finish Oezdemir by KO/TKO, and this victory was able to introduce Prochazka to the light heavyweight rankings, with the Czech already occupying the #5 position. In one particularly frightening statistic, 24 of Prochazka’s 27 wins have come by KO/TKO.
A victory over Dominick Reyes could potentially put Prochazka in line for a title shot depending on the status of other contenders at the time. #1 contender Thiago Santos is currently set to fight Glover Teixeira on November 7, but by the time this fight between Reyes and Prochazka takes place in February, the winner of Santos/Teixeira may already be scheduled for a world title shot. So it is very possible that this fight could turn out to be a #1-contender fight and that Prochazka could potentially earn a title shot after only two UFC fights.
Who do you think will win between Dominick Reyes and Jiri Prochazka next February?
