Jiri Prochazka is such a man of honor that he doesn\u2019t want an award if he doesn\u2019t think he deserved it, and he definitely doesn\u2019t think he deserves the UFC\u2019s \u2018Comeback of the Year\u2019 award for 2025.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because according to Prochazka, his fight with Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 320 went exactly according to plan. Which is a bit shocking to those of us that watched it live,<\/a> because it seemed like Rountree was rinsing the Czech fighter for the first two rounds before \u201cBJP\u201d turned the tides and earned a big KO win late in the third.<\/p>\n It was a huge moment for Prochazka and an exciting one for fans. Jiri banked $100,000<\/a> off the moment, half from a Performance of the Night bonus, and half from a Fight of the Night bonus. We don\u2019t believe there\u2019s any bonus money given away to UFC\u2019s \u2018of the year\u2019 winners, but either way Prochazka says he doesn\u2019t want that win to be considered a comeback.<\/p>\n \u201cAppreciate it and one more thing, It was not comeback,\u201d Prochazka declared on X (formerly Twitter). \u201cI watched that 2 days back, and here is my result. I controlled my opponent all the fight. Even if he was many time successful with his techniques, I controlled distance, rhythm and precision of hits.\u201d<\/p>\n Did he, though? As the included highlight video from the UFC shows, Rountree was landing more than Prochazka, was frustrating him, and disrupting his attacks. All three judges at UFC 320 gave the American kickboxer the first two rounds. And then we know what happened in the third.<\/p>\n Sounds like a comeback to us.<\/p>\n Rather than question his performance in those first two rounds, Jiri wants to look forward to his next fight. That may be in April depending on if the UFC can convince him to potentially miss the birth of his first child<\/a> to fight in a non-title fight at UFC 327 in Miami. Or perhaps the rumors are true about Alex Pereira moving up<\/a> to heavyweight to challenge for an interim title, clearing the way for \u201cThe Czech Samurai\u201d to get what he demanded for such a sacrifice: a shot at UFC gold.<\/p>\n Prochazka recently clarified that reports of him fighting in Miami against Carlos Ulberg were premature and that negotiations were ongoing. Days after that, though, he posted a training video with the caption \u201cPreparation started.\u201d<\/p>\n He finished his rebuttal of the UFC\u2019s Comeback of the Year with another message that makes it sound like he\u2019s fighting sooner than later.<\/p>\n \u201cNow is time to make a step up and show it,\u201d he wrote. \u201cLETSGOFORTHAT!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jiri Prochazka is such a man of honor that he doesn\u2019t want an award if he doesn\u2019t think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-412384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412384","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=412384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}