Jiri Prochazka loses Zen over Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier’s UFC 311 criticism: ‘F—k them!’
Prochazka was not happy to hear that the UFC commentary booth took him to task for fighting with his hands low again.
Jiri Prochazka delivered an impressive performance against a tough opponent in Jamahal Hill at UFC 311, knocking out the former champion in the third round of their pay-per-view (PPV) main card fight (highlights here).
Indeed, Hill landed more than a few big shots, and there was a risk the fight might get called after Prochazka took a particularly nasty poke to the eye.
During UFC 311’s post-fight press conference (watch it here), Prochazka discussed his improvement, the eye poke and accusations from the broadcast team that he was still sloppy in one particular area.
“That was the change what I wanted to show,” Prochazka revealed about not going for the kill when he had Hill hurt in the first round. “I don’t need to press myself and be in a hurry for a knockout, like, 100 percent knockout. I want a knockout, but be ready for for everything … Catch the opponent in the right times. Seriously and not so seriously making a contact. Feeling good in a fight. And this is something I achieved.
“Me and my team, we took the preparation very seriously,” Prochazka added. “So, I’m happy that I I showed some little improvement with the hands up. But, still, I believe in my feeling of my head movement and of the feeling of the of the distance. So, this is my game.
“l still feel [the eye poke] right now,” Prochazka continued. “There is no way to stop the fight because of eye poke. I’ve got one more eye. We are here to fight, to win the fight. I know there is rules and all these things, but this is the true sport of man, the fight. And you fighting with eyes, no eyes, if the opponent gets you to ‘the boss’ or not. Doesn’t matter. For me, it’s fight till the end. There has to be one winner, and one who’s not.”
Prochazka has taken a lot of criticism for leaving himself defensively open with his hands-down stance. And that didn’t change after UFC 311, which featured Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier castigating the former 205-pound kingpin for not keeping his hands up.
“I had, in first round, hands down?” Prochazka said when told of their comments. “F—k them. F—k them! I worked on that so much. So, I think you should see that.”
He laughed as he said it, but it’s clear he’s doesn’t like the accusations of sloppy hand positioning.
