Luke Rockhold offered his insight on the big upcoming light heavyweight clash at UFC 311.
Jiri Prochazka (30-5-1 MMA, 4-2 UFC) and Jamahal Hill (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) square off in a key divisional matchup on Jan. 18 at Inuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. The event streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+.
Both fighters will look to rebound from knockout losses to UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, but former UFC and Strikeforce titleholder Rockhold is more concerned with Prochazka’s mental state heading into the fight.
“That’s a very tough fight man,” Rockhold said on the “JAXXON Podcast.” “You just don’t know where Jiri’s at. His head and his mind. Both of them, they’re coming off bad losses to Pereira. Jiri, two bad losses. He just didn’t look himself. He knew what he needed to do, and he went out there and fought blindly. I didn’t like the way that Jiri fought his last time out vs. Pereira.
“He just didn’t look like he would follow the game plan. Like, what were you doing? I don’t know. To think you could stand with him and play this karate style, kung fu game? You can’t fight like that, a guy that he’s so dangerous. You can’t fight with your hands down and you got to go for takedowns. You identified his weakness, but you didn’t even try to exploit it.”
Rockhold rates Hill as the sharper striker going into the potential title eliminator at UFC 311, and gives him the edge over Prochazka.
“Jamahal Hill’s more dangerous,” Rockhold said. “He’s got pop, he’s got power, he goes for the kill and Jamahal’s got funky – he’s weirdly athletic sometimes. He’s hard to take down. You’ve seen in the Glover fight, he was able to get up and get his way and funks his way through a lot of things, and he ends up finding his shot, the kill shot. But, like I said, this is a rebuilding process for both of them and you don’t know, but I don’t know. I might favor Jamahal in this one.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.
