In a sport that’s never been short on colourful characters, 33-year-old Jiri Prochazka might just be the strangest of the lot – and easily one of the most interesting.
This weekend, we’ll get another look at exactly why when the former light heavyweight champ throws down with Kiwi superstar Carlos Ulberg in Miami at UFC 327, with the 205lb belt on the line.
PPV: UFC 327 Prochazka vs Ulberg | SUN 12 APRIL 11AM AEST | The UFC’s undisputed light heavyweight championship will be on the line, when Jiri Prochazka and Carlos Ulberg meet for the vacant title at UFC 327 | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.
Part philosopher, part knockout merchant, Prochazka has long styled himself as a modern-day samurai, right down to the kimono he wears and his traditional training techniques.
The Czech star’s persona could come across like top-notch marketing, but once you meet the bloke, you realise he’s fair dinkum.
FROM HOOLIGAN TO SAMURAI
After losing his dad at a young age, Prochazka drifted into a rough crowd, becoming involved with football hooliganism back home in Czechia.
Everything changed when he picked up centuries-old Japanese text The Book of Five Rings – the teachings of Miyamoto Musashi, a legendary swordsman whose philosophy would change Jiri’s life.
“It was The Book of Five Rings, and that was the samurai spirit and all these ideas around Japanese culture. I took it on as my own,” Prochazka told BBC Sport.
“Purpose is a good word. It changed my life because, like I said, I had no rules in my life after my father died, so that’s why I was looking for some strong information and strong ideas.”
From there, the young man dove head-first into bushido, the samurai code, and, in his mind at least, became one.
And really, who is going to argue with him?
From his refusal to back down in Octagon firefights, to his sometimes bizarre interviews that can leave fans scratching their heads, Prochazka competes with a mindset that places honour above results.
“I seek the perfect performance,” he has said. “Not just victory.”
It’s the reason he’s one of the most unpredictable – not to mention entertaining – fighters in the entire sport.
METHOD TO THE MADNESS
Every UFC Fight Week involving the unconventional star offers another glimpse into how he trains – and these insights rarely disappoint.
He might disappear into a snowy forest to train on his own for weeks. Or sit in complete darkness and meditate for days.
Then there was the time he revealed he’d shadowboxed for 24 hours straight.
Earlier this week, he revealed the thinking behind some of these “crazy” training decisions — which have also included swimming under ice — on podcast The Dan Le Batard Show.
“Crazy for who?” asked Prochazka. “Maybe crazy for somebody who doesn’t know… I like the challenges … It’s terrifying, but it’s about calming the mind in every aspect of your life.
These challenges gave me the opportunity to control myself as much as I can.
“Like sex. You do that, and then you know [what it’s like]. Until that moment, you don’t know, you just have imagination.”
As we said, the philosophical fighter’s responses can be a little bizarre, but his point about the value of regularly putting himself in unfamiliar training situations is valid. So is his belief in facing fear head on as if it was a human opponent.
“I want to be so deep in contact with the fear [I can] see through him, because he is just shaking the mind,” he said.
“He’s just shaking your emotions and asking you, ‘Are you sure about this? Are you stable?’ And I hate these types of questions…
“So, that’s why I’m doing all of these things, and trying to be a little bit closer, a little bit closer, a little bit closer, day by day, to the calm mind.”
WHY IT WORKS
Prochazka knows he isn’t a literal samurai, but he also knows that’s not the point.
“For me, to be a samurai … it’s about attitude,” Prochazka told podcast The MMA Hour in 2024, admitting, “Sometimes you don’t need to be a samurai, because this attitude, this role, is not effective in every piece of your life.
“But, like I said many times, we all need to follow something. We need to understand our lives … by some theory, some ideas.
Ulberg talks preparations for Jiri clash | 07:43
“These ideas about the bushido moral code help me to be honest to the way that I’m following. That’s all. You have to find something that resonates with you, and samurai ideas resonate with me.”
It’s clearly working. A former world champion in both the UFC and Japanese promotion RIZIN, Prochazka is coming off two thrilling third-round KO/TKO victories, both of which were awarded Performance of the Night.
While he definitely won’t be in for an easy night in Miami against 13-1 Ulberg, who is on a stunning nine-bout win streak, you know that Jiri will be itching to put himself in a new dangerous situation, try to calm his mind, then punch his way out of it as he has so often before.