“Jiri, it seems like you were aware that his knee was blown out and you kind of backed off a little bit. Is that the case?” Joe Rogan asked Jiri Prochazka during the UFC 327 Octagon Interview. “[It] happened man. I felt like mercy, you know? In that fight I felt so sorry with him. This is one of the biggest lessons in my life, man,” Prochazka responded. Why are we bringing this up now? Because Jiri seems to be having trouble with what went down that night after the fight.

Jiri Prochazka has hit back at Carlos Ulberg for his comments over Jiri showing “mercy” to ‘Black Jag’ during the UFC 327 loss. And the Czech star appears to have shifted all the blame to long-time UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. Earlier this month, ‘BJP’ suffered a shocking first-round knockout loss at the hands of the New Zealander after the latter suffered an ACL tear mid-fight. 

In the post-fight interview with commentator Joe Rogan, Prochazka claimed he felt like showing “mercy,” hinting that it cost him the fight. But ‘Black Jag’ viewed it differently, as he branded ‘The Czech Samurai’ a “pretender.” Carlos Ulberg felt Prochazka only said that because he was trying to “cope” with the loss and get a “rematch.” Now, Prochazka has responded. 

“You know, I don’t want to hear this bulls—t from a stripper,” Prochazka told Ariel Helwani on Monday afternoon. “I believe that in the cage, the fighters, we are one of the most rare people in the world, and does anyone think that I prepared my words after the fight to tell the crowd ‘I was so merciful’. First of all, I didn’t say that because Joe Rogan said to me, ‘mercy’.

“It was not about the mercy, but I just saw him, and he was hurt, and then I just didn’t accept the scenario of the fight, that it could be an easy fight, because the only thing I know is hard work… Congrats, he is the champion, really, he caught me. I accept that, but all these things that Ulberg said, man, maybe I’m too old to play something, I’m too old, I want to be real, that was bulls—t what he said… I lost, I accept, let’s go back.”

For now, Jiri Prochazka wants to leave the drama behind and focus on the future. His partner, Kamila Kordulikova, gave birth to a daughter, Eleonora, their first child together, shortly after his fight. And Prochazka wants nothing more than to go back home and focus on his family and spend time with his daughter. 

“I want to be back, I think around, right now I have the time with my girls, so it will be like two months, right now it’s two months really in the big press, so I just came back from after the fight, straight to the hospital.”

Despite the upset loss, Prochazka is looking forward to the future and has even named opponents he would like to fight next. 

Jiri Prochazka has two names he would like to fight next

Speaking to Helwani, the 33-year-old claimed he wants to face Paulo Costa and Magomed Ankalaev next. And even shared a potential return date for himself. 

“Right now, I believe somewhere around October,” he said. “Right now, Costa or Ankalaev [makes sense].”

Paulo Costa fought on the same card as Jiri Prochazka. And unlike ‘BJP,’ the Brazilian managed to pull off a victory against the previously undefeated Azamat Murzakanov in his light heavyweight debut, which earned him praise from President Donald Trump. 

Magomed Ankalaev, on the other hand, hasn’t fought since his rematch loss at the hands of Alex Pereira last year. The Dagestani star has been vocal against Prochazka for a while.

After seeing Jiri mention his name, ‘Big Ank’ wrote on X, “Jiri Prochazka got knocked out by a man with one leg and now he calls me out after finding out I already have an opponent. Carlos Ulberg is right this guy is a pretender, he never wanted to really fight me and he’s the number one easy fight in LHW division.”

According to online chatter, Ankalaev will face Khalil Rountree Jr. next. So, that leaves Costa behind for a potential clash against Prochazka.

It appears Jiri Prochazka wants to put his loss to Carlos Ulberg behind him, along with the “mercy” controversy. While Prochazka was clearly the one who said the word, it appears he is coping by throwing Rogan under the bus. What do you make of the situation?