{"id":584163,"date":"2026-04-04T03:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584163\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:15:07","slug":"ufc-327s-jiri-prochazka-willing-to-chase-pereira-to-heavyweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584163\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC 327\u2019s Jiri Prochazka Willing To Chase Pereira To Heavyweight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jiri Prochazka could be the new UFC light heavyweight champion after next weekend, but that doesn\u2019t mean \u201cBJP\u201d isn\u2019t interested in a potential move to heavyweight. After all, his former rival, Alex Pereira, will be waiting with open arms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In case you forgot, Prochazka will face Carlos Ulberg at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-cards\/424558\/ufc-327-fight-card-start-time-date-location-jiri-vs-ulberg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 327<\/a> on April 11 to determine the next UFC light heavyweight king. That\u2019s because Pereira <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/425323\/jiri-prochazka-vs-carlos-ulberg-headlines-ufc-327-after-alex-pereira-vacates-title\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">vacated his 205-pound belt<\/a> in order to move up heavyweight and land a spot on the upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-white-house-2026-fight-card-start-time-full-results-dana-white-conor-mcgregor-cbs-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC White House card<\/a> in June. This, and only this, is the reason why Prochazka is fighting for another UFC title. Pereira already holds two wins over Prochazka so a trilogy fight at 205 pounds would need a lot of convincing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Prochazka, who has only lost to \u201cPoatan\u201d inside of the Octagon, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/433306\/jiri-prochazka-focused-on-ufc-327-fight-not-incoming-baby-there-is-no-other-mission\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">completely focused on the task at hand<\/a>. Even with a baby on the way the former UFC light heavyweight champion is only worried about Ulberg and taking home the vacant strap at UFC 327 in Miami, Florida. After that, he would entertain the idea of chasing Pereira down at heavyweight and locking down his desired trilogy fight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWhen I fought in Rizin in Japan, I fought with the heavyweight guys many times,\u201d Prochazka told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fBeNUSM4Ueg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MMA Junkie<\/a> earlier this week when asked if a move to heavyweight could be in his future. \u201cI can push my body to show much more strength and be able to fight with these types of guys, with these heavyweight and still be faster, more endurance, precise, all these things so it\u2019s a really good idea for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">First thing\u2019s first, Prochazka needs to get past a surging Ulberg next weekend at UFC 327. If he\u2019s able to do that and Pereira walks away with the interim UFC heavyweight title at the White House card then maybe, just maybe, a trilogy fight could come together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jiri Prochazka could be the new UFC light heavyweight champion after next weekend, but that doesn\u2019t mean \u201cBJP\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-584163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584163","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=584163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}