Jiri Prochazka has warned new UFC light-heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill he is coming for him after he won the vacant title at UFC 283 on Saturday night.
Prochazka won the belt from Glover Texeira in June, but before he could defend it in an immediate rematch he suffered a bad shoulder injury which saw the title vacated. Magomed Ankalaev and Jan Blachowicz fought for the belt first in December, but when that ended in a draw, Hill was drafted in to face Texeira in a new title fight on Saturday night.
And the American made history as the first graduate of Dana White’s Contender Series to become world champion in the promotion by beating former champion Texeira in front of a home crowd in Brazil. But there will be dispute over the legitimacy of any champion who hasn’t defeated Prochazka going forward.
“Congratulations,” Prochazka said in an heated Instagram video in which he appeared to be walking through snow in a short-sleeve t-shirt. “I’m coming. I’m coming!” He captioned the video with Hill’s ‘Sweet Dreams’ Instagram handle as well as emojis of a tornado, fire and lightning.
Hill, for his part, has stated he would be willing to wait for Prochazka to be cleared for competition in order to guarantee his first title defence is against the Czech fighter. “It’s not a secret: I’ve been calling for Jiri for years,” Hill said before the Texeira bout. “I want Jiri. I’ve been wanting Jiri for years. Even listening to Glover talk this week and he kind of references back to Jiri – I want that fight. It depends on how long. He’s saying he can be back as early as six months or summer. I’ll wait for that, or next man up.”
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However, if promotional president White is to be believed, it would take a miracle for the former champion to be ready in time for a summer fight date. When the belt was initially vacated in November, the UFC boss declared that it was as a result of Prochazka suffering the “worst shoulder injury” that doctors had ever seen.
“That night when it all went down and we had our doctor look at him,” White explained at the time. “The doctor literally said in all the years at the UFC, this is the worst shoulder injury we’ve ever seen. It’s pretty nasty and him being the f***ing savage that he is, he still wanted to fight. He said, ‘I could do it…’ No. You can’t fight, kid.
“What happened was, it popped out and he had some guys there at the gym and they f***ing ripped the shit out of it and destroyed his shoulder. That night when we were in there and we were having the meeting, and we were talking about the possibility of him fighting again, he was saying, ‘I think I can come back in five months…’ and all this s***. The doctor was with us, too, and the doctor’s like ‘you need to start being realistic about this’.”
