Jeff Smith 
@adminThis weekend’s clash between Dominick Reyes and Jiri Prochazka at UFC Vegas 25 was an all-out brawl. The co-main event saw Prochazka come out like a man possessed, firing bombs that rocked Reyes from the starting bell. Reyes, to his credit, didn’t give one inch of ground though and fired back with some hard hits of his own.
Prochazka has been on a winning streak where he has dominated his opponents. His last ten wins have come by way of TKO/KO and he has not lost since 2015. In his 28 victories, only 6 have made it past the first round, and 25 have now ended in a TKO/KO.
With just one previous fight in the UFC, he managed to get himself ranked fifth in the light heavyweight division. With this latest victory, it looks like he will now get a title shot between the winner of Jan Blachowicz vs Glover Teixeira light heavyweight championship coming at UFC 266 in September.
UFC Dana White said the winner of this bout would be getting a title shot. If Reyes had won it would have been his third try to capture the belt. Instead, he will now have to regain his footing in the ranks suffering 3 losses in a row. Granted the previous two were to Jon Jones and Jan Blachowicz, both for the championship.
Despite Prochazka showing his power and rocking Reyes several times, the two-time contender showed what he was made of and landed some solid blows in response. The Czech fighter managed to brush off the hits, but he knows he needs to work on his defense, stating, “I just want to show the beauty of the art, but sometimes I go very quickly for the win and by that I catch some punches and that’s a mistake, but I’m learning fight by fight.”
The blow that KO’d Reyes was a spinning back elbow. After the fight when asked about the move and his chance to fight for the belt he said, “I just flow. After some counter punches from Dominick, I can have no chance to think for some plans. I just was in the flow. After that, the spinning elbow, let’s try it.”
“Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s do that,” Prochazka said about the title fight. “I like my neighbor Blachowicz. Now it’s the fight Glover Teixeira vs. Blachowicz, yeah? So winner will be my next opponent? Ok that’s an honor for me. That’s a big honor for me.”
If you put some money down on Prochazka on a straight money line you at least doubled your money. The KO earned him an extra $100k in bonuses, if you bet the under you may have gotten a little bonus yourself.
It’s a pretty safe bet that Blachowicz will successfully defend his title for the third time, he is heavily favored over the aging Teixeira.
We look forward to seeing the line on a Jan vs Jiri match later in the year.
