Main Event Spotlight | UFC 295: Procházka vs Pereira

In June 2022, Procházka won the light heavyweight title in a Fight of the Year against Pereira’s friend and teammate Glover Teixeira. Unfortunately, Procházka was never able to defend his title. Shortly after his win over Teixeira in Singapore, Procházka suffered what doctors called “the worst shoulder injury we’ve ever seen.” Not wanting to hold up the division while he took over a year off to recover, Procházka vacated his belt.

The same situation happened to the subsequent champion Jamahal Hill, who vacated his belt earlier this year after rupturing his Achillies tendon. With the title sitting vacant, and Procházka still ranked the No. 1 light heavyweight in the world, he was next in line to try and reclaim his throne.

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Standing across from him on Nov. 11 is Pereira, the former 185-pound champion with knockout victories over current champ Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya. Despite an extensive kickboxing career at light heavyweight, Pereira’s only competed once in that weight class in mixed martial arts.

Three months ago, Pereira edged out a split decision victory over former 205-pound champion Jan Blachowicz. With his third win over a current or former UFC champion, Pereira moved to the top of the line of title challengers.

There’s one thing that all these fighters have in common: they’re all former UFC champions. Procházka and Pereira’s resumes consist of a myriad of elite fighters who’ve either held or competed for a UFC title. Not only that, but these two athletes have recorded some of the UFC’s most devasting finishes against those same opponents.

With a professional MMA record of 29-3-1, Procházka has finished 28 of his opponents, 25 by knockout, including a highlight reel spinning back elbow against Dominick Reyes in 2021. Prochazka has finished all three of his UFC opponents – Teixeira, Reyes and Volkan Oezdemir – earning four performance bonuses.

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Likewise, Pereira has collected three knockout victories – over Strickland, Adesanya and Andreas Michailidis - since making his UFC debut at MSG in 2021. Despite a combined nine total fights between the two, Procházka and Pereira have already proven they can turn off the lights against decorated UFC athletes.

When looking at this fight stylistically, it’s safe to assume both athletes will initially want to keep the fight standing. While Procházka does have three submission victories to his name, two of those came nearly a decade ago. Pereira, a former kickboxer, has only a single takedown to his name in the UFC.

Both athletes are extremely efficient in their standup. Procházka connects with 5.77 significant strikes per minute, which is 69.7 percent higher than the UFC average of 3.4. Not only that, but Procházka lands 55 percent of his significant strikes thrown compared to the UFC’s average of 44.9 percent. He also holds a knockdown ratio of 2:0.

Pereira’s striking is just as lethal. Pairing accuracy and high output, Pereira dominates opponents with his world-class kickboxing ability. Pereira lands 5.23 significant strikes per minute and connects with 62 percent of his significant strikes attempted, the fourth highest rate in UFC history. At distance, where Pereira has landed 99.3 percent of his total strikes across his six UFC fights, he has the third highest strike accuracy in history, only behind Alistair Overeem and bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley.

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Both athletes only have two knockdowns apiece, which might be surprising considering they’re both so well-known for their devastating knockout power. The thing with Procházka and Pereira is once they knock their opponents down, they’re not able to get up.

Looking at these two side-by-side, stats show that Prochazka is more willing to take a few strikes in order to respond with a flurry of his own. With a higher knockdown average and more strikes landed per minute, Procházka absorbs nearly two strikes more than his Brazilian counterpart.

Another intriguing aspect of this fight is their versatility on the feet. While both are exceptionally accurate, Pereira is far more diverse with his strikes, constantly leaving his opponents guessing. Pereira lands 41 percent of strikes to the head, 34.7 percent to the body and 24.3 percent to the legs. As we’ve seen in his fights against Adesanya, it does not take long for Pereira’s calf kicks to take detrimental effects on his opponent’s mobility. Procházka, on the other hand, lands over 85 percent of strikes to the head.

While it’s worked out for Procházka in the past, this may suit Pereira very well, knowing that he only needs to fear a one-dimensional attack, while Procházka has to constantly be on the lookout for calf, kicks, head kicks and “Poatan’s” patented left hook.

On the other hand, Procházka shouldn’t anticipate any wrestling from Pereira. Despite his one takedown against Adesanya, Pereira’s been taken down eight times in six fights, and he looked far less comfortable on the mat than on the feet. Should Procházka choose to take Pereira down at any point, he may find a lot of success, especially raining heavy elbows from top position like in his fight against Teixeira.

The next question you need to ask is, how will Procházka look after suffering a serious injury? While you’d hope he’s been able to return to form, surgeries can often have lingering effects on athletes’ ability to perform as well as they did prior to the injury. If Procházka looks fine right out the gate, then his game plan might stay consistent to that of his previous three fights. If his shoulder doesn’t allow for the same speed and power as once before, will Procházka have veered toward a more wrestling-heavy approach this training camp?

For Pereira, this is only his second UFC fight at light heavyweight, the first being a three-rounder. Will his cardio at a heavier weight class hold over a potential 25 minutes? And while his durability held up against Blachowicz’s “Polish Power,” how might it hold up against a natural 205er that’s shown time and again that he can put opponents away with ease?

On November 11, all these questions will be answered when Procházka and Pereira step into the Octagon to clash for the vacant light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 295: Procházka vs Pereira in Madison Square Garden.