Tonight, Dana White announced the first few fights for UFC 300. White announced that former light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka (29-4-1) will be returning in April at the historic event when he takes on Aleksandar Rakic (14-3).
UFC 300 goes down in Las Vegas on April 13th. Starting with Rakic, this will be his first fight since May 2022 when he suffered a serious knee injury in his fight against Jan Blachowicz. Rakic has been cleared to compete and was scheduled to run it back with Blachowicz next month.
However, the former champion suffered an injury and has to have surgery. Rakic started calling for a fight with Jiri Prochazka and it’s a fight the former champion was interested in. Prochazka couldn’t make it work for next month, but the fight is happening and it’s happening at a historic event.
UFC 300
Jiri Prochazka was on top of the world near the end of 2022. He was the UFC light heavyweight champion and he was gearing up to defend his title against Glover Teixeira in a rematch. However, he then suffered a terrible shoulder injury which forced him to get surgery and he vacated the title.
Jamahal Hill went on to win the title, but after Hill won the belt, he also suffered an injury and vacated the belt. Prochazka returned back in November at UFC 295 and faced former middleweight champ Alex Pereira for the vacant title. The fight was back-and-forth but ultimately Pereira scored a second round TKO to win the title.
Prochazka was disappointed in the outcome, but the former champion was hungrier than ever to get back in there. He’ll make the walk again at UFC 300 and he has a very tough challenge in front of him.