EWe didn’t see this one coming. In the preview of UFC 303 and the highly anticipated Pereira vs Prochazka 2, the Czech fighter uploaded a video training in Las Vegas… with the Villarreal shirt! A light ‘sparring’ session (if that exists for Jiri) prior to the press conference and in the hours before the weigh-in.
Everything has its explanation in the image he shared Raúl Albiol, footballer and captain of Villarreal, hours before. The defender took a photo with the charismatic European fighter before giving him some Spanish team t-shirts. It also appeared Tim Simpson, the famous agent of Prochazka and many of the best UFC fighters such as Holloway, Leon Edwards or Adesanya, among others.
In addition to being one of the great figures of the current UFC and being a former light heavyweight champion (before being injured), Prochazka is a big football fan. In fact, in the past, before becoming a fighter, he played as an ‘amateur’ at TJ Drustevník Hostradice. He even later became part of his ‘hooligans’… participating in street fights.
But all that was before discovering mixed martial arts. Prochazka, as he has explained on numerous occasions, relies on ‘The Book of the Five Rings’ by Miyamoto Musashi to direct his life.…and on many occasions he has completely ‘disconnected’ from the world to retire for days to his cabin in the woods.
“It gives me a basic moral code. The book evolves with life. The idea of the samurai helps me all the time,” declared at the time about Musashi’s writing.
