Hunter vs. Samurai: Offensive Dynamos
Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka, A Fight of Two Insane Stoics
The Patron Saints of Big Boy Violence meet this Saturday in Madison Square Garden. Originally headlined by Jones and Miocic, the two stoics were promoted to fight for the vacant Light Heavyweight belt after Jones injured himself in training. Jiri Prochazka and Alex Periera are two men who were fast-tracked to the title due to their previous accomplishments (Rizin and Glory respectively) and stunning displays of violence in the Octagon.
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Their matchup is sure to deliver on this promise. With the hunter and the samurai facing off, who will deliver the killing blow?
Disclaimer: The video clips included in this article are not owned by the author. They are included for educational purposes only to illustrate key moments in the fighter’s career and demonstrate aspects of mixed martial arts techniques and strategies. All rights to the video content belong to their respective owners.
Two Freight Trains
Both men excel on the front-foot. Though knocked out in the rematch, Pereira has been able to dole out significant offense while his opponent’s back is to the cage. The left hook is a favorite of the backwards moving fighter but Pereira is always pressing forward to keep pressure on his opponent, cut off their exit, and force a return which allows him to transfer his weight back with a left hook counter.
Setting up with punches to the body to bring Izzy’s guard down and throwing hooks to punish his lateral movement along the cage, Pereira is a quiet punisher once he forces his opponent back.
Though less devastating, and a little more calculated, Pereira was able to patiently pick away at Blachowicz in his last outing after pressuring him back. Uppercuts to punish the dips, left hook to show his prime weapon, a body jab as his classic left hook set up. Accurate weapons that keep the threat of the knockout alive, slowly break Blachowicz’s cardio capabilities, and keep his back against the cage.
Prochazka has been similarly effective on the cage though much more aggressive. I LOVE the weapon he starts this sequence with. While maintaining control of Teixeira’s wrist, he throws a stunning up elbow.
Other than elbows, some staples of Jiri’s game along the cage includes long uppercuts, wide body shots, and knees to the midsection. He often throws these strikes WIDE and crashes in with the knee, giving his opponent an opportunity to clinch up.
Once he closes the distance completely his elbows are wrecking balls. Reyes was wasted by the onslaught of bows in their fight. Without thinking to force a clinch, he was left defenseless and slept by Jiri’s insane offense.
Whoever does end up winning this fight, I believe the man pushing forward will have a distinct advantage. Each man is so potent when cornering an opponent that the finish will likely occur along the cage .
Left Hook
The left hook is Poatan’s most potent weapon and will be a key in the interplay between each man’s game. From the outside Pereira employs two attritive weapons that slowly wear the opponent and provide openings for his signature technique: the calf-kick and the body jab.
The body jab is a perfect tool for Pereira. When his opponent is near the cage it backs them up. It is a body shot that forces the opponent to do something to dissuade it (hopefully bring their guard down to shoot the left hook in). It slowly whittles away at their gas tank and will be even more punishing as they move in. The body jab can truly be a Swiss army knife weapon that doesn’t have too much drawback.
Most famously, Pereira set up current Middleweight champion Sean Strickland with a slew of body jabs. Strickland’s tendency to parry shots brought his hands down and Pereira slid a beautiful left hook in over the top.
Pereira’s other attritive weapon is his calf kick. All the rage the past few years in MMA, the hype is well-warranted. A long strike with high damage potential and little risk, its no wonder people are punting each others legs off.
In his fight with Blachowicz, I was surprised to see his calf kicks work so effectively against a fighter who’s best attribute is his kick defense. Pereira’s calf kicks are unique in that they have less tell than a traditionally thrown kick. The movements of his torso are mostly independent from the motion of his lower body.
Rather than fully engaging his hips and turning the kick over to make shin-on-calf contact, Pereira does not mind if the side of his shin/foot land on the calf. This sacrifices a full power calf-kick and instead opts for a weapon that will be defended less and hit more often. Evident from the clip, the power it does have is more than sufficient to unbalance Blachowicz.
Here he pairs the low kick and left hook beautifully. Throwing the low kick with his right leg, Jan is forced to check, put his foot down, and come forward. As he comes forward Pereira transfers his weight from front foot to back foot, throwing a left hook to punish Jan’s feint, pivoting out to gain a dominant angle after throwing.
Much like his protege, Glover Teixeira only focused on a few weapons while striking in his title loss to Jiri Prochazka. Though not a consistent weapon for him throughout the fight, he did throw a single low kick that baited a return from Prochazka.
The calf kick would have been the perfect weapon to punish Prochazka’s long stance and tendency to stay heavy on his front foot. His reach and straight hitting is something to be wary of when kicking, but Pereira’s uniquely invisible low kicks might be able to chop away at the base of the Czech.
Though Poatan prefers to set up his left hook while fighting at distance and unleashing it while his opponent is along the cage, Prochazka’s defensive liabilities leave him open to the attack.
When watching a fight, many simply say “Raise your hands!”, to a fighter getting hit which is usually a level 1 assessment of how defense works. In the case of Jiri his hands down style, erratic head movement, and propensity to leave his head completely open while straight hitting are all worrying signs when facing an opponent with as potent a weapon as Pereira’s left hook.
Even when backed up against the cage, Prochazka opts to throw long uppercuts from his waist rather than defend and move laterally off the cage. His decision making is truly all-offense.
In a matchup against Pereira, I do not see the uppercut boding well against Pereira’s left hook. In the classic battle between lead hook and rear uppercut, the left hook usually comes out on top.
Compounded by Prochazka throwing it long from his waist he will almost assuredly get cracked with the left hook this Saturday.
Another example of Jiri’s uppercut while pressing forward. Less of a liability here given the offensive flurry he is executing, but a strong consideration to favor other weapons nonetheless. Prochazka throws everything from his waist with little proactive head movement; I don’t see him sufficiently defending the left hook if these tendencies are not addressed.
Prochazka’s unorthodox style and constant jerking movement will surely confound Pereira in moments, but the opportunity to counter a man who gets hit as often as Prochazka will come to the Brazilian.
When fighting at distance Prochazka’s best chance of success is by moving with more intention and a focus on straight hitting. In the sequence below he is able to feint nicely, switch stances, threaten with the jumping knee, and keep Glover moving back while only hitting him with a few well-considered straights.
The key is to throw enough offense to keep the opponent defending while leaving less openings than he usually does. If he can consistently fight as he does in the above clip, his chances of getting knackered by the left hook will fall significantly.
The Clinch
While the fight at long and middle distance favors Pereira’s more tactful approach the clinch will be an interesting battle.
Pereira favors a more defensive game in the clinch, where he can disengage and strike off of the break. This was paramount in the fight with Blachowicz who was looking to take him down through the whole fight.
I have not yet seen a dedicated takedown performance from Prochazka, but Pereira’s ability to disengage from most clinches along the fence surprised me. He has a wonderful grappling teacher in Glover Teixeira. Though not immediately off the break Pereira was able to press Jan into the fence and hit some devastating shots after standing Blachowicz up.
In most cases, Prochazka opts for a long guard to grab wrists in the style of Israel Adesanya. Thankfully for Pereira, he has had more experience than just about anyone utilizing this style of guard.
If Prochazka is able to keep the distance close in open space, folding elbows over his wrist control, he has the potential to keep Pereira’s offense at bay and score some damaging shots of his own.
The clinch and inside fight game could be a prime area of offensive opportunity for Prochazka. As always however, the left hook off the clinch is there. Prochazka should be looking to feint his way in as shown in the previous section, and let loose when in close. How well he will stick to a game plan like this, and not be lured by the primal blood-lust while engaging in mortal combat with the Brazilian hunter, who is to say?
Grappling?
Neither of these men are particularly lauded for their grappling ability. Prochazka is an opportunistic grappler, going to the ground when his opponent takes it there, looking for offense at all times. He does not often initiate any grappling sequences.
Pereira’s tendencies in the Adesanya fight were worrisome, but his survivability was impressive in his fight with Blachowicz. His left hook was taken advantage of before Blachowicz began to gas in the second round, as he shot a well-timed double under Pereira’s Sunday punch.
Where Adesanya played a dismal full-guard against Blachowicz, Pereira’s only goal when on his back was to stand up. To his credit he was able to do so very well past the first round. Standing up along the cage, forcing the clinch, and turning Blachowicz into the cage to reverse position; Pereira’s defensive grappling is more than appreciable against a solid offensive grappler.
Before getting his back taken in the first Pereira showed a very smart use of submissions. Rather than selling out on trying to choke Blachowicz out, he used the threat of the guillotine to break Jan’s grip and keep him from driving on his takedown attempt. He was forced back into the cage as a result but he prevented Jan from putting him on his back.
Even when Blachowicz had his back, Pereira was able to survive for minutes in a position many believed would be a death knell for him. Pereira showed a wonderful ability to focus on wrist control, hand-fighting with Blachowicz to prevent his neck from being taken, two-on-one grips to bring Blachowicz’s arm to the ground, and attempting to turn into the Polish Hammer.
These were the right set of things to do from Pereira. No doubt he has spent hours with Glover on his back defending these positions. The cage impeded some of his work from significant positional changes, but he survived the round nonetheless.
Though I have never seen a proactive grappling performance from Pereira, he can dole out DEVASTATING ground and pound when given the opportunity by his opponent. Though Pereira has improved by leaps and bounds in his ability to survive on the ground, Prochazka should see ground and pound as his most surefire path to victory.
Blachowicz was singularly focused on submitting Pereira, and was likely surprised by his defensive acumen. Given Prochazka’s power and willingness to throw elbows on the ground his ground and pound will be a lethal weapon if he ends up on top.
This weekend’s stoic showdown in MSG is sure to produce an unparalleled amount of blood or a vicious KO. Given Prochazka’s tendency to hand-fight, uppercut from his waist, and heavy front-foot, Pereira’s calf kick and left hook will eat him up if these tendencies are not given.
If Prochazka decided to employ a more grapple heavy approach he would be pushing his advantages and likely make Pereira’s striking more tentative as a result. I have not yet seen this approach from Prochazka so I cannot guarantee that it will happen. As it stands Poatan is set to avenge his teacher’s loss to the Drunken Samurai in a violent showdown in the concrete jungle.
