Jiri Prochazka has always been light for his division, but he nearly came in well under his weight limit for his UFC 311 bout with Jamahal Hill.
When the official weights for the Jan. 18 pay-per-view in Los Angeles were released, Prochazka’s numbers raised a few eyebrows. Prochazka was 208.2 pounds on fight night, just 3.7 pounds heavier than his official weigh-in weight of 204.5 pounds. For reference, Prochazka was nearly 15 pounds lighter than his opponent Hill (221.8) and four pounds lighter than middleweight Reinier de Ridder (212), who also competed on the card.
As it turns out, Prochazka was extra light due to a sauna mishap that had him chugging water at the official weigh-ins to get his weight back up to the light heavyweight range.
“I thought I would do my best when I would go to the sauna the night before the weigh-in and spend it there,” Prochazka said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “I switched myself in the sauna and I was there for, like, two hours. The funny [thing] is, the second day after that, I didn’t drink anything after the sauna and the next day, morning, I went to do the control weight and I was 91 kilograms (approx. 200 pounds). I’m fighting in 93 and a half, and I was [two and a half pounds] under my weight.
“I was the only one in the row to do weight and I tried to hide myself. I drank one liter of the water, second liter of the water, because I spent too much time in the sauna.”
Fortunately for Prochazka, his relatively low weight didn’t affect his performance, as he and Hill delivered a thriller with Prochazka eventually putting a resilient Hill down via TKO in the third round of the evening’s co-main event. Prochazka earned a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus for his efforts.
If anything, Prochazka credited another pre-fight hiccup with possibly helping him as a bout of the flu forced him to dial back his normally intense training regimen.
“I had the flu,” Prochazka said. “For one week, like, five days before fight week I was in a fever. … Maybe I’m a little bit glad for that because every time I’m trying to push my preparation too much that I hurt myself or I overtrain, so that’s why I’m maybe just a little bit glad for that.”
Restraint has never been one of Prochazka’s strong points, especially in the cage where his cavalier style has led him to become a fan favorite and a one-time UFC light heavyweight champion. But he is willing to pull back a little career-wise, even coming off of his pivotal win over Hill.
Alex Pereira currently stands atop the 205-pound division and he has already twice beaten Prochazka in championship bouts. While Prochazka is eager for a third fight, he also looks forward to competing once more to truly earn a trilogy bout with “Poatan.”
“[After] the second fight, I pushed it too much,” Prochazka said. “I was like, ‘I want Alex Pereira. I’m ready for him.’ Right now, I’m ready, too, but I’m open for whoever UFC will give me. Like a next opponent to prove that I am [the No. 1 contender], but I want a true challenge. I want a true challenge from the top-5 guys.”
“There’s a few guys who really have the taste, have the drive to go to the top. I want to go to the top,” he continued. “I feel the energy of the crowd and I can take it, so that’s why I’m doing that. That’s why I’m still talking about that, to be there, because I really feel like I can be the top. One thing I needed is that I have to be stable to not just get to the top and back, but to go to the top and know how it is to be there.”
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