Jiří Procházka is aware of the mistakes he made during a brief stint as UFC light heavyweight champion in 2022.
Procházka enjoyed a quick ascent to top spot on MMA’s biggest stage, capturing UFC gold in just his third fight in the promotion. After knockouts of Volkan Oezdemir and Dominick Reyes, he submitted Glover Teixeira to avoid certain defeat on the scorecards in Singapore.
But the era of “BJP” was a short one, not reaching his planned first defense against Teixeira after a shoulder injury forced the Czech star to vacate the belt.
The 32-year-old has since failed in two bids to regain champ status against Alex Pereira, with two knockout losses to “Poatan” sandwiching a memorable bounce-back performance against Aleksandar Rakić at UFC 300 this past April.
Like that result accomplished, Procházka will be looking to put in a display worthy of another crack at recapturing the title when he meets a fellow ex-champion in Jamahal Hill at UFC 311 on Jan. 11.
During an interview with MMA Fighting‘s Mike Heck, Procházka looked ahead to what a victory over “Sweet Dreams” would bring, reiterating his desire for a third shot at blemishing Pereira’s perfect light heavyweight record.
And were he to succeed in that ambition, “BJP” is confident he knows how to better approach a second reign.
“Maybe first time, when I won, I didn’t really realize that it was a big, a big thing in my life, and I was not so — like I say — grateful for that,” Procházka said. “I took that like, automatically, I will be the champion. OK, I’m the champion, and that’s all, yeah. I [didn’t have] these feelings to be humble, grateful in that.
“So I said to myself, ‘I want to go this way one more time,’ not just one more time, but I want to go there, take this belt, take that position of the best man in the light heavyweight [division], and one more time, but grateful. Be humble. And really appreciate that moment. Really appreciate the life that gave you this chance to fight for that again. And right now, I’m in this process. This is what I feel right now.”
Procházka features in one of the most prominent and crucial undercard bouts at UFC 311, a pay-per-view that will be headlined by highly anticipated title defenses for lightweight champ Islam Makhachev and bantamweight kingpin Merab Dvalishvili.
