Have you ever been in a situation where you were in competition with someone but when you met them in person, they subverted your expectations by being ‘normal’ and friendly? Well, that is going on right in Jiri Prochazka’s life days before his high-profile clash on January 18. Before facing Jamahal Hill inside the Octagon at UFC 311, ‘Sweet Dreams’ left the former champion stunned.

Both fighters are no strangers to taking shots at each other, especially since the fight was announced. In fact, Prochazka was one of many fighters who criticized Hill for his altercation against champion Alex Pereira a few weeks ago. One would imagine that Prochazka and Hill seeing each other in person would spell trouble. However, that couldn’t have been further from the truth despite their online verbal jabs at each other. ‘The Czech Samurai’ revealed his cordial encounter with Hill at UFC Performance Institute in an interview with MMA journalist Helen Yee.

“A few minutes back we met in PI, I guess he is a normal person. He is nice and.. you know, when you don’t know me personally or I don’t know him personally, I have nothing against any fighters. Yeah? So that is why I don’t believe in trash-talking and all these s–t. And so, [it’s] the same as right now. We met, I shook hands with him and he’s good.”, said ‘BJP’ to Helen Yee.

However, just because Jiri Prochazka had a friendly encounter with his scheduled rival, it doesn’t mean that he’s gone soft. They are eventually going to settle all business inside the Octagon at UFC 311; friendly or not. This platform would be the perfect stage for each fighter to seek redemption, especially since they lost to a common enemy, and a win over the other could ensure a title opportunity for either fighter. In that light, let’s look back at a time when ‘BJP’ had to issue bitter truths to ‘Sweet Dreams’.

Jamahal Hill was forced to digest hard facts from Jiri Prochazka

Alex Pereira is the common rival for both fighters. Hill lost to the Brazilian juggernaut at UFC 300 and Prozhazka too, lost to Pereira (for the second time) at UFC 303. While Prochazka, more or less, took both his losses with relative grace, his UFC 311 opponent has still not let go of his first-round KO loss to ‘Poatan’. The 12-2-1 fighter feels that he was ‘cheated’ during UFC 300, claiming that Pereira knocked him out by taking advantage of a break. Is this true or is the American fighter just being salty?

Well, his opponent for  UFC 311 had a different perspective. While speaking to Shak MMA, ‘The Czech Samurai’ said, “So for me to speak about, how to say, to argue about his weakness, trying to tell everyone that this mistake was of the referee… Accept it, accept it you lost the fight, man. I accepted the last time, the same that I lost with Alex badly. And that was not the mistake of anyone, just mine.”

The said break in the fight was after Jamahal Hill landed a low blow on ‘Poatan’ and referee Herb Dean stepped in. But the light heavyweight 12-2 champion waved him off and caught ‘Sweet Dreams’ with one of his classic left hooks to end the fight. And as Prochazka pointed out, a fighter indeed has to always be vigilant. While Prochazka eventually accepted his losses to ‘Poatan’, he did have complaints about the referee when he and Pereira met at UFC 295. After being dropped, and forced to eat elbows off a failed takedown attempt, ‘Poatan’ mounted ‘BJP’ to unleash ground-and-pound, before the referee stepped into save the Czech fighter.

While Prochazka wasn’t out, he still ate a lot of unanswered shots and dropped back to the mat only because ‘Poatan’ landed those deadly elbows. Even Joe Rogan said the stoppage was premature. However, it seemed like if the ref had let the fight continue, Alex Pereira would have eventually finished Jiri Prochazka, possibly laying him out cold on that canvas on that fateful night.

Well, he isn’t out of the game yet, and neither is Jamahal Hill. Both fighters have the unique opportunity to fight for the title once more, and even seek revenge against the man who knocked them both out. But who will emerge the victor at UFC 311, and possibly challenge Pereira to a title fight down the line? Let us know in the comments down below.