Glover Teixeira vs. Jiri Prochazka

Last night before the main event I told my wife “I know you aren’t super familiar with Jiri, but you’re gonna want to watch this fight, Glover is a savage, and Jiri is a ninja. This will be an instant classic”.

At some point during the fight a commentator mentioned his two previous fights in the UFC. My wife looked at me in shock and said “this is only his third UFC fight?”. I said yup and then she did vaguely remember the Reyes fight, but didn’t pay too much attention to it. She was legitimately shocked that Jiri was only 2-0 in the UFC, and KO’d two top 10 opponents.

I also told her what his record was when he joined the UFC, and she was surprised he had that many fights. Also that he had turned down a UFC deal prior to that. I’m a hardcore, my wife is very casual, she will sit and be there during the fights but only really pays attention during big finishes/moments or for big fights. She was blown away at how good that fight was and genuinely had an appreciation for both Glover and Jiri.

Even the casual(est) of casuals can see how special what happened last night was.

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Yeah 100 percent. Lil Nog had better hand speed and technique, Glover has more power. Both have very good boxing fundamentals. Thinking about it now, Glover vs Lil Nog would have been a great matchup.

That’s awesome. Interesting to hear her perspective but sounds like she can recognize a real one lol. I was first introduced to Jiri like most Hardcores with his Rizin fights but it has been fun to watch him develop and now take the UFC by storm.

Especially those fans unfamiliar with him who don’t know what they are watching yet and can’t see him for what he is which is a true martial artist and not an athlete trying to fight safe and point fight. He takes extreme risks with huge rewards and they only see the downside of his style and not the amazing and ultra entertaining upside.

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An elite, technical striker with good footwork and distance control would be able to out point him if they stayed disciplined. Jiri just has a tendency to pull guys into these fire fights, and that’s where he thrives. Mousasi is probably the worst matchup possible for him.

I know I’m going to sound like conspiracy guy here and I’m generally not , especially when it comes to mma but I have a question.
I haven’t re watched the fight . Just the once in real time while fairly drunk.
I thought i saw at least 2 times. I think it was one each . What looked like fake taps that the ref didn’t pick up on .
I remember making a mental note of it. I think glover may have been doing that ( that was the third time )
When jiri was applying the sub the ref was on the other side of glovers tapping hand. It kind of looked like glover had a half closed fist and was half tapping half punching jiri in the face. But the ref changed positions and glover basically got busted.
I’m wondering if anyone else saw what im talking about.
Maybe i need to re watch it but I’m probably not going to get a chance, that’s why I’m asking the question.
I feel like that’s what glover might have been doing but didn’t pull the scumbag move of trying to deny it and saying he didn’t tap.
Anyway fucking great fight. Glover fought the way i was hoping he could. Jiri was actually just a bit better on the ground than i was expecting. He’s a slippery little fucker and has some good GNP. Those body shot were a fantastic adjustment and changed the fight for him.

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I thought I saw someone tap too, but I wasn’t sure who did it because I was wild each’ing on the UG instead of watching the fight. I wonder if that’s why my take on the fight seemed to be so far out in right field.

I was rethinking it a bit, wondering why my view seems to be so unpopular. One of the things I realized is that I was bringing up names that are from yesteryear, number one, and two, the guys who are still active from that list, they’d never get close to a title shot. Going even further, the guys on my list don’t match up very well against the guys the Jiri KO’ed. So at minimum, I should probably change the tone of my voice when I talk about Jiri.

Having said that, I still think some technical, disciplined strikers like Machida and Mousasi would give him fits. And you brought up the fire fight issue. I agree he’d probably easily finish both guys by drawing them out of their technical shell and drawing them into a firefight.

BUT, there’s one guy who thrives on those firefights who was also on my list. Rumble. I think Anthony Johnson would beat him up and KO him so badly that it’d change the arc of Jiri’s career. He’d Houston Alexander Keith Jardine.

Jiri did those mini slaps multiple times. I dont think he was tapping or pretending to tap but just trying to annoy Glover or something

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Jones should have never been allowed to fight, multiple failed steroid tests.
Don’t even bring Jones into this conversation.

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Thanks.
I didn’t think I imagined it.
I remember thinking he was in position to punch a bit harder if he wanted to . That’s what got me wondering.
The was one where glover did a single hald open fist that kind of looked like he could have punched him in the face but he kind of tapped him on the bicep.
Im not saying this was going on but it kind looked that way.
Ive been watching fights for 15 years and dont recall ever thinking this was going on. It’s not a case of I don’t know what the fuck I’m watching. It could be that I didn’t see it right at the time though.

Fucking iconic!

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Also fucking iconic…

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I haven’t read or watched any of the post-fight stuff, but I hope the UFC is going to book an immediate rematch. Incredible fight that I would very hyped to see again.

They always seem very reluctant to just do the obvious these days, however.

I agree with this.

In general I agree with the idea that the newer breed brings more to the table than the old guard. However, I also think the divisions are a lot bigger today than they were 10 years ago. I agree that Lil Nog would struggle against today’s elite. But his skill level allows him to absolutely crush today’s lower tiers. Skill counts. I understand this is the definition of gatekeeper, which seems perverse to describe guys like Shogun and Lil Nog, but the context is that they’re gatekeepers a good 10-15 yrs past their prime… which doesn’t seem all that bad.

So maybe I’m just arguing about where the goal post should be placed, but I think Lil Nog looks something more like a top 10 guy, as opposed to “wouldn’t break the top 20” today.

Which brings me to your original point. Does Glover belong in the list that I wrote? Like, is he THAT generation of fighter, or is he THIS generation of fighter? He’s 43. If Jiri represents the new breed, and the new breed would all crush the old breed, how was Glover able to beat the piss out of Jiri? He was 30 seconds away from upsetting Jiri.

Maybe you could write it off as the performance of Glover’s lifetime (and I think it was). But we fundamentally disagree about how much better the new breed is than the old breed. In an earlier post I described Jiri vs Glover as the low water mark for skill at 205. I stand by that. Jiri was super hittable in that fight. It’s not like Glover pulled some trick out of his sleeve, or outsmarted him with supreme boxing. He had Jiri KO’ed standing multiple times in that fight with BASIC boxing.

True story. I think Jiri is a top 5 guy in any era. And a top 5 guy always has a chance at walking away with the title. But I also think the guys with elite skill + basic discipline are going to give Jiri fits. I agree one of Jiri’s talents is to draw these disciplined fighters into firefights. But I also think some of those guys on my list are pretty decent with firefights themselves. Prime Machida, Prime Mousasi, Prime Shogun, Prime Hendo, Prime Rampage, these guys are all 50-50 against Jiri. Which suddenly makes Jiri look not SO great (and yet at the same time, 50-50 against these guys puts you in some pretty fucking historic company).

I think Rumble is Jiri’s kryptonite. I think he KO’s Jiri 100% of the time. Not just KO, but career altering KO. REALLY BAD MATCH UP.

And all of that criticism could be changed by embracing some orthodoxy. I don’t think he should completely abandon his fearlessness. I just think it should be more measured. He comes forward too predictably. Rumble would literally kill him.

Leaving out prime chuck is rude.

Manager backs Kamaru Usman to beat UFC light heavyweights Jiri Prochazka and Glover Teixeira

Step up Usman.

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Yeah. Here’s one of the incidents I was thinking of.
This is some number one bullshit.
This fight probably should have been stopped.

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Indeed.

Nah he kept doing that. I thought the same but he would do it in innocuous positions where there was no chance he’d have tapped. I didn’t realized anyone else noticed

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