Jiri Prochazka: Jamahal Hill trying 'to build a confidence where there is not confidence' with trash talk

12/23/2024 09:00 AM

To say Jiri Prochazka is locked in on his UFC 311 matchup with Jamahal Hill would be an understatement — especially when it comes to the trash talk.

"He's an opponent who I wanted before and he had a lot of things to [say] about me and my my style, my everything, whatever," Prochazka told MMA Fighting. "So right now, time to fight, that's all. And I'm ready to show my best, and that's all."

The two former light heavyweight champions battle in a three-round main card bout on the UFC's first pay-per-view of 2025 in Los Angeles on Jan. 18. Both men were brutally knocked out by current champ Alex Pereira in their recent matchups, but since this next bout was booked, Hill has had some things to say about Prochazka's fighting style, and also comparing the losses to Pereira, saying that while he got caught at UFC 300, Prochazka was "completely shut down, completely exposed, and then got done bad" at UFC 303.

Prochazka is storing the information, potentially, as bulletin board material, but it isn't about trash talk for Prochazka, it's about letting his violent tendencies show themselves when the octagon door locks.

"I don't care what he's saying because it's not just primarily about me, it just shows what what is in his head," Prochazka explained. "Man, I don't care about what other people say about me because when you know how this works, how to work the mental of the human body, so how people can speak about others and why they speak about others, especially when he don't know me personally. He knows just my fighting style and in that, he's totally out with his commentary.

"So that's why I don't care about these trash talks because. Do you know how the true confident man, a real man [looks] like? He don't know. He don't need to say some shit about others, to speak about his strong sides and about the weaknesses in his opponent because he's self-confident too much to not do that. That's, for me, the true power of the man. That's it. I don't want to speak... I want to speak about others, but why [would I]? I see that like a weakness to speak some bullshit about my opponents, man. I'm going there, I will show my best, and I will show that to all the world that I'm the best, and that's all. My actions will talk.

"It's not me who is saying that. He's saying that. He's just showing that about himself because, lots of talking, lots of talking. The man is not here in this world to speak about others, but to do the right things. When the man wants to fight, [when] a warrior wants to fight, he will fight. That's all. No talk, no [doing] bullshit, some stupid things. Do it. That's all."

Ahead of UFC 310, Hill was shown on camera approaching Pereira at the UFC Performance Institute, getting under the champ's skin to the point that Pereira threw a pair of boxing gloves at Hill to get in the cage and battle it out. Hill ultimately declined the offer.

When asked about the incident, Prochazka was hesitant to respond, but ended up giving a brief synopsis of what he saw.

"I just don't care what he wants or what he don't want, or whatever," Prochazka said. "[They] have just settled the fight, and that's all. And about Alex, when he won, when he wanted to fight Alex and to speak with him a lot. He had to go to the cage and find him there.

"But he didn't do that, so nonsense. Nonsense. Doesn't matter, so some of these guys [are] trying to, and [pretending to be] warriors, but they are not."

Prochazka finished Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 300, which was sandwiched between two knockout losses to Pereira. The former RIZIN star took a lot from the UFC 303 loss to "Poatan," and has adopted a new acceptance of who and what he is. Prochazka is absolutely locked in and laser-focused on Hill, and his first fight of 2025.

"Yeah [I'm locked in], but you know what? I have no other option," Prochazka said. "I have no other option. This is my life. This is what I realized. This warrior path is my life and this is what I have to do, what I need to do, what I want to do.

"This is me."