7. Jiri Prochazka vs Aleksandar Rakic
Yet another former divisional king is the A-side of the featured preliminary bout of UFC 300, which is no surprise on a card which features more bouts with former and current champions than not, and where exactly half of the fighters are former title holders. However, Jiri Prochazka is not like any of the others. The Czech Samurai’s eclectic personality charms, captivates, and confuses fans everywhere when they see videos of him attacking trees with his bare hands like some sort of drunken beaver. Prochazka and his unique top knot hairstyle bring that same energy into the octagon as seen with his crazy finishes in his three UFC wins which earned him four performance bonuses, two of each type – one of each for his Dominick Reyes fight, which arguably earned ‘Knockout of the Year’ for the spinning elbow finish he landed. Losing to Alex Pereira does not reduce the level to which he excites fans, either. The inevitably of losing at some point with that style was never in doubt.
His foe, Aleksandar Rakic, could not be more different. A genuine super-athlete, the hyper-explosive Serb has not displayed that rare trait in his last several fights; ever since knocking out Devin Clark and Jimi Manuwa five years ago with highlight reel spinning backfist and head kick finishes, respectively. The ‘Rocket’ seems to have changed his fuel to the economy version, focusing on methodical, technical attacks rather than leveraging his explosivity. He has some good technical tools, but disappoints by fighting medium-range, tepid striking battles against fighters like Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith instead of overwhelming them completely. Even when he damn near broke Smith’s leg in half with leg kicks he refused to turn the heat up and finish. Rather, he appeared content to wrestle the one-legged ‘Lionheart’ to a decision victory. His leg kicks remain his one potentially devastating tool, but his lack of setup on them is what led to him blowing up his own ACL against Jan Blachowicz in 2022. With this being his first appearance since that injury two years ago, his third torn ACL in total, the question of how he will look looms large.
The same can be said for Prochazka, who was knocked out exactly four months ago, a short time to recover. His brain is unique, no doubt, but a concussion is nothing to trifle with. Perhaps this fight could be rated higher if we could be certain both fighters would show up in top form – it definitely would if Rakic was not so averse to high-paced fights – but as it stands I think being smack-dab in the middle of this list is fair. Jiri could enforce chaos and make it a true war, but equally possible is that Aleksandar controls the distance and pace to create a comfortable fight for himself. Do not discount the possibility of a wrestling-heavy attack from Rakic, either.
Fight Rating: 8/10
