Robert Whittaker reveals his pick for Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira

Former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker gave his prediction and breakdown of the UFC 295 main event between former light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka and former middleweight titleholder Alex Pereira.  

“This is going to be a gnarly fight.  It’s crazy for so many different reasons.  Obviously, Pereira has an amazing striking game.  We’ve seen it in his fights, and this is his weight division.  He’s got the range.  He’s got the reach.  He’s got the height,” said Whittaker.  “He looks good in this division, but Jiri is so unorthodox.  He’s so hard to get a read on, but he’s very hittable.  He’s very hittable.  I saw him in deep waters when he fought Glover [Teixeira].  I was actually ringside for that, thankfully, and Jiri looked in deep waters with some of those shots he was taking from Glover, but he just never went away, just never went away and was always doing his unorthodox type fighting.

“Obviously, Glover was having a tough read of it but he was landing big shots.  But again, regardless, Glover looked really, really good and then lost.  Jiri has an uncanny ability to find the win in these fights.  In these harder fights, but also in fights.  He looks to be outclassed.  He finds the wins.  You saw that with Dominick Reyes.  He finds the wins.  Reyes is a very good striker.  You saw the way he fought Jon Jones, but Jiri just finds a way to win.  He’s got such unorthodox striking he can see kill shots and he goes for them instinctually.  I’m very curious to see how this fight plays out.

“I was saying, in that Glover fight, he took some crazy shots.  There are a lot of times, I was ringside and I was looking in, I was like, I was sure Jiri was dead, dead on his feet.  He took big shots, but his hands were down, hands in his pockets.  Guy’s moving around doing his thing.  Never went away, and still found the win some how.  It could be seen as a liability, his hands low, but it could play into his unorthodox style were he moves around, almost flows and dances with the shots a little bit because he lands those awkward, unorthodox shots all the time and they hurt.  You’ve seen in a lot of his fights he hurts guys.  

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“25 wins by knockout.  That’s not a fluke.  There’s a method to his madness.   I guess that’s the biggest question, though.  Alex Pereira, being one of the best strikers in the UFC at the moment, very textbook though… How are they going to pair up?  You can say, yeah, Alex is going to find his mark and land one on Jiri’s chin.  Jiri is very hittable and he keeps his hands down.  You could say that, or you could say Jiri, with his unorthodox style, is going to fire something that Alex doesn’t see and he gets put out as well because Jiri has a lot of wins via knockout as well.  Two huge dudes.  Both guys have reach.  That’s what makes MMA so exciting.  We could see something completely different and Jiri go in for a double leg.  You don’t know.  I don’t know, but I’m very interested… I don’t know how to read this one.  The safe bet would have to be Alex Pereira because you can go like basic math, if Glover could hit him, Pereira will.  But in saying that, Jiri, he has an uncanny knack of chasing the win, finding the win in tough situations, in uphill fights where his back’s against a wall.  

“I like Alex Pereira, nothing personal, but my tip is going to be Jiri for the win.”