UFC: Jiri Prochazka KOs Dominick Reyes with spinning back elbow, calls for light heavyweight title shot
- ‘Denisa’ leaves former challenger out cold and face down at UFC Vegas 25, and eyes winner between champion Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira
- ‘I’m ready, let’s do that. Boom, that’s a big honour,’ says Prochazka, who is likely to fight for belt after just two bouts in the promotion
Jiri Prochazka showed he is a force to be reckoned with in the light heavyweight title picture with a stunning spinning back elbow knockout of former challenger Dominick Reyes at UFC Vegas 25 on Saturday night.
The 28-year-old Czech (28-3-1) caught the American with a beautiful combination, coming over with the right elbow against the fence before spinning around with the left elbow to plant Reyes face down on the canvas at 4:29 of the second round.
Reyes was out cold for several minutes, but he was sitting up by the time Herb Dean raised Prochazka’s hand in the centre of the Octagon at the Apex facility. It was just the third spinning-back elbow knockout in UFC history after Ricardo Ramos and Kim Dong-hyun.
“Man, it was a very nice fight,” Prochazka told Paul Felder in his post-fight interview. “I just wanna show the beauty of the art but sometimes I go very quickly for the win and by that I catch some punches. Mistakes, yeah, but I’m learning still from fight to fight.
“I just flow. After some counterpunches from Dominick I can have no chance to think for some plans. I just was in the flow and after that maybe the spinning elbow, that’s right, OK let’s try it.”
Prochazka – a former champion in Japan’s Rizin promotion – is now riding a 12-fight win streak, with 25 knockouts in his career. He has seemingly earned a title shot after just two fights in the UFC, having knocked out another former challenger in Volkan Oezdemir on his debut last July.