Jiri Prochazka’s career is tied to Alex Pereira’s following their two previous encounters.
Last October, Prochazka was emotional watching Pereira win back the light heavyweight title to become a two-time champion at 205 pounds.
Avenging his loss to Magomed Ankalaev allowed ‘Poatan’ to resume the plans that he had before he lost the belt earlier in 2025.
Before Prochazka fights for Pereira’s vacant belt now that he’s moved up to heavyweight, the Czech fan favorite shared his thoughts on how his former opponent will do in his next challenge.
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Jiri Prochazka backs Alex Pereira to outstrike and beat Ciryl Gane in interim heavyweight title fight
The case has been made that Ciryl Gane is a better matchup for Alex Pereira’s heavyweight debut than the Jon Jones fight that the Brazilian star was pursuing.
His move to try and become the first UFC fighter to win belts in three divisions sees him face a fellow striker for the interim belt at the White House on June 14.
Having faced Pereira twice in recent years, Jiri Prochazka is confident that his former foe’s skillset is going to translate to heavyweight.
“I believe Alex can do that,” Prochazka recently said on Adin Ross’ Kick stream when asking about Pereira winning a belt at heavyweight. “Alex can do that, especially when I saw him, how his weight is going up. He’s strong enough, too, and in the stand-up, I believe he will be better. But Gane is a lot of movement for that.”
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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
In the last decade, Prochazka has only suffered losses to Pereira, whose devastating striking has proven to be the answer to the fan favorite’s somewhat chaotic approach.
Gane, however, is a very different fighter and an incredibly rare breed at heavyweight, given that he’s known for his agility and movement, which makes a clash with ‘Poatan’ so interesting.
Prochazka recently told MMA Junkie that he believes he’d need to move up to heavyweight in order to get the trilogy fight with Pereira.
While this isn’t a priority for him and he believes he’s better suited to light heavyweight, Prochazka is still confident he could do well in this…
2026-04-06 21:00:00
