When Jiří Procházka fights, you do not blink.
In individual-focused pursuits like combat sports, it’s often easier for someone to immediately stand out compared to many of the team sports that are popular worldwide. And while similarities within MMA are always present, there’s truly no one else like the former UFC light heavyweight champion.
In the cage, Procházka’s stoicism and samurai spirit are magnetically accompanied by an unorthodox, predator-esque striking acumen. The native Czech has never met a judge he liked, fighting to decision only twice in his 36-bout career. Putting it all on the line describes a lot of fighters, but Procházka lives it as a lifestyle, emboldened with the confidence of a man who seemingly has a video game power-up strapped to his back.
At UFC 311 on Saturday, Procházka looks to bring it again opposite fellow former champion Jamahal Hill. The duo were expected to collide as far back as 2023, but catastrophic injuries and divisional shake-ups delayed the inevitable. Hill, outspoken as always, had plenty to say about Procházka in the past, and he’s done the same since they were officially booked this go-around, loudly promising a knockout.
“He’s showing that [bravado] a lot,” Procházka told Uncrowned regarding Hill’s public tactics. “Especially this type of confidence, it’s not out of place when he’s trying to show that. It’s his fight with himself. He’s trying to show [his] strength to others, but everybody’s seeing that it’s not true.
“Like my true self-confidence, my self-confidence depends on being so self-confident that you don’t need to speak about others, that you don’t need to do anything to others — to speak some trash talk to others and to be rude in training, to do whatever. Because if you have self-confidence, you are a kind person. You are a really kind person because you know you can do that. You can have that potential power to release that in the right moment when you really want something, and that’s it.”
Despite suffering a devastating shoulder injury that forced him to relinquish the title in late 2022, Procházka has been more active in the Octagon than Hill of late.
Hill’s title reign ended in a similar fashion when he ruptured his Achilles tendon months after winning the belt in January 2023. Hill has fought once since then — his UFC 300 main event in April against current champion Alex Pereira. He lost the fight via first-round knockout, the first knockout loss of his 15-fight career.
While Procházka is no stranger to the vast array of styles in MMA, he’s never been greeted with the level of hostility Hill has projected toward him over the past several years. But what can be viewed as confidence by some also carries hints of weakness, says Procházka. And he believes that’s normal.
“Everybody does that,” Procházka said of Hill’s outspokenness. “We have our inside fights, and we are trying to be better in every situation. So well done, I don’t care if he’s self-confident or not. I’m just counting [on the] best version of Jamahal Hill for this fight, and it’s up to me to show the best version of myself, too.”
On Saturday at Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome, Procházka comes in as motivated as ever. Like Hill, he’s on a mission to emphatically rebound and return to the win column after failing against the champion Pereira.
Fighters can fight in the same style, trash talk and prepare with common routines. But does anyone try to grow as profoundly as the 205-pound division’s resident Bushido practitioner?
“There is many things that I learned from these two fights with [Pereira],” Procházka said. “What I took from these fights, I don’t want to speak about it. I want to show it. I want to show it in the fight. So, see me, watch me on Saturday.
“Persistence, endurance. Endure, endure, endure. Be better. Accept yourself after some losses or bad trainings, and do it again and go harder. Be smarter, more precise. Try to be better. Just try to be better. Every day we have a chance to make this world — not just the world — but ourselves, our communication, our trainings, our eatings, our breathings, every move, smoother, nicer, preciser, better. Master our lives.”
