{"id":29197,"date":"2025-07-29T05:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T05:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/29197\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T05:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T05:15:11","slug":"jiri-prochazka-set-to-back-up-magomed-ankalaev-vs-alex-pereira-2-at-ufc-320","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/29197\/","title":{"rendered":"Jiri Prochazka set to back up Magomed Ankalaev vs. Alex Pereira 2 at UFC 320"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jiri Prochazka<\/a> is set to face Khalil Rountree<\/a> Jr. at UFC 320<\/a>, but he\u2019ll pull double duty that week just in case he\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n

The former light heavyweight champion is expected to serve as the official backup for the title fight happening that same night when Magomed Ankalaev<\/a> puts his title on the line in a rematch against Alex Pereira<\/a>. Prochazka\u2019s team confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Monday after he first mentioned his additional role when speaking to Yahoo! Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n

The UFC often employs backup fighters just in case disaster strikes and the main event takes a hit but this is even easier with Prochazka already scheduled on the same card.<\/p>\n

The biggest difference for Prochazka is hitting the 205-pound limit for a potential title shot if he\u2019s needed. He\u2019s currently scheduled for a non-title fight, which means he could usually hit the scale with a one-pound allowance.<\/p>\n

Obviously, Prochazka has history with Pereira after falling to the Brazilian on two separate occasions in the past but that doesn\u2019t mean a third fight is out of the realm of possibility. Of course, Prochazka has never faced Ankalaev before so that\u2019s an entirely new matchup for both fighters.<\/p>\n

Serving as the backup doesn\u2019t offer any guarantees as far as future opportunities but Prochazka getting the nod could set him up for a potential title shot if he gets through Rountree in October.<\/p>\n

Prochazka already dispatched another former champion in Jamahal Hill<\/a> with his latest win and taking out Rountree could put him in position to challenge whoever is left standing between Ankalaev and Pereira.<\/p>\n

UFC 320 goes down from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Oct. 4 with Ankalaev vs. Pereira 2 serving as the main event with bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili<\/a> defending his title against Cory Sandhagen<\/a> in the co-main event. Prochazka\u2019s fight against Rountree is featured on the main card on pay-per-view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jiri Prochazka is set to face Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 320, but he\u2019ll pull double duty that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[5118,27790,1929,64,63,8421,786,585,27787,1347,27789,785,27791,27788,11408,85,319,787,1396,8045,2342],"class_list":{"0":"post-29197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-alex","9":"tag-ankalaev","10":"tag-at","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-back","14":"tag-fighting","15":"tag-front-page","16":"tag-jiri","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-magomed","19":"tag-mma","20":"tag-pereira","21":"tag-prochazka","22":"tag-set","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-to","25":"tag-ufc","26":"tag-ufc-news","27":"tag-up","28":"tag-vs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}