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Part philosopher, part knockout merchant, Prochazka has long styled himself as a modern-day samurai, right down to the kimono he wears and his traditional training techniques.<\/p>\n
The Czech star\u2019s persona could come across like top-notch marketing, but once you meet the bloke, you realise he\u2019s fair dinkum.<\/p>\n
FROM HOOLIGAN TO SAMURAI<\/p>\n
After losing his dad at a young age, Prochazka drifted into a rough crowd, becoming involved with football hooliganism back home in Czechia.<\/p>\n
Everything changed when he picked up centuries-old Japanese text The Book of Five Rings \u2013 the teachings of Miyamoto Musashi, a legendary swordsman whose philosophy would change Jiri\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was The Book of Five Rings, and that was the samurai spirit and all these ideas around Japanese culture. I took it on as my own,\u201d Prochazka told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cPurpose is a good word. It changed my life because, like I said, I had no rules in my life after my father died, so that\u2019s why I was looking for some strong information and strong ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, the young man dove head-first into bushido, the samurai code, and, in his mind at least, became one.<\/p>\n
And really, who is going to argue with him? <\/p>\n
From his refusal to back down in Octagon firefights, to his sometimes bizarre interviews that can leave fans scratching their heads, Prochazka competes with a mindset that places honour above results.<\/p>\n
\u201cI seek the perfect performance,\u201d he has said. \u201cNot just victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the reason he\u2019s one of the most unpredictable \u2013 not to mention entertaining \u2013 fighters in the entire sport.<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE – JUNE 12: Jiri Prochazka (R) of the Czech Republic punches Glover Teixeira of Brazil in their light heavyweight title boutSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
METHOD TO THE MADNESS<\/p>\n
Every UFC Fight Week involving the unconventional star offers another glimpse into how he trains \u2013 and these insights rarely disappoint.<\/p>\n
He might disappear into a snowy forest to train on his own for weeks. Or sit in complete darkness and meditate for days. <\/p>\n
Then there was the time he revealed he\u2019d shadowboxed for 24 hours straight.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, he revealed the thinking behind some of these \u201ccrazy\u201d training decisions — which have also included swimming under ice — on podcast The Dan Le Batard Show.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrazy for who?\u201d asked Prochazka. \u201cMaybe crazy for somebody who doesn\u2019t know\u2026 I like the challenges \u2026 It\u2019s terrifying, but it\u2019s about calming the mind in every aspect of your life.<\/p>\n
These challenges gave me the opportunity to control myself as much as I can.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike sex. You do that, and then you know [what it\u2019s like]. Until that moment, you don\u2019t know, you just have imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we said, the philosophical fighter\u2019s responses can be a little bizarre, but his point about the value of regularly putting himself in unfamiliar training situations is valid. So is his belief in facing fear head on as if it was a human opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be so deep in contact with the fear [I can] see through him, because he is just shaking the mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just shaking your emotions and asking you, \u2018Are you sure about this? Are you stable?\u2019 And I hate these types of questions\u2026 <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, that\u2019s why I\u2019m doing all of these things, and trying to be a little bit closer, a little bit closer, a little bit closer, day by day, to the calm mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
WHY IT WORKS<\/p>\n
Prochazka knows he isn\u2019t a literal samurai, but he also knows that\u2019s not the point. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, to be a samurai \u2026 it\u2019s about attitude,\u201d Prochazka told podcast The MMA Hour in 2024, admitting, \u201cSometimes you don\u2019t need to be a samurai, because this attitude, this role, is not effective in every piece of your life. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut, like I said many times, we all need to follow something. We need to understand our lives \u2026 by some theory, some ideas. <\/p>\n
Ulberg talks preparations for Jiri clash | 07:43<\/p>\n
\u201cThese ideas about the bushido moral code help me to be honest to the way that I\u2019m following. That\u2019s all. You have to find something that resonates with you, and samurai ideas resonate with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clearly working. A former world champion in both the UFC and Japanese promotion RIZIN, Prochazka is coming off two thrilling third-round KO\/TKO victories, both of which were awarded Performance of the Night.<\/p>\n
While he definitely won\u2019t be in for an easy night in Miami against 13-1 Ulberg, who is on a stunning nine-bout win streak, you know that Jiri will be itching to put himself in a new dangerous situation, try to calm his mind, then punch his way out of it as he has so often before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a sport that\u2019s never been short on colourful characters, 33-year-old Jiri Prochazka might just be the strangest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-595004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595004","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=595004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}