What martial arts does Jiri Prochazka use in the UFC?

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jiri Prochazka is arguably the greatest Czech martial artist of all time. Not only this – but there’s also a claim that he’s one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time as well.

Although best known for his Muay Thai, Prochazka is generally quite well-rounded as these days, you have to be if you want to get to the top. Aside from being physically capable, Prochazka is also known for his Samurai mentality and stoic lifestyle.

Martial arts used by Jiri Prochazka

Muay Thai

If you’ve ever watched Jiri Prochazka fight, then you’ll understand that his first love is Muay Thai. In fact, back in 2011 he won the Czech Muay Thai Association Championship. Although the Czech Republic isn’t the best country in the world for Muay Thai, this is still a huge achievement and proves his skills at a high level.

One of the most famous wins of his UFC career was against Dominick Reyes, where Prochazka hit a spinning elbow which resulted in an instant knockout. At 6’5” tall, his long frame is perfect for Muay Thai and Prochazka often likes to engage by using the Thai clinch to his advantage. In the same fight, he also hit a huge Teep kick on Reyes, forcing his opponent into the cage in the process. Too often, MMA fighters will not fight to their strengths. This is certainly not the case with Jiri Prochazka.

Such is Prochazka’s love for Muay Thai – he even made his hairstyle match the look of the Mongkhon. This is the name of the headband used in Muay Thai. With this in mind, you could say that Prochazka is pretty dedicated when it comes to his love of Muay Thai and martial arts culture.

Kickboxing

Back in his childhood, Jiri Prochazka was inspired by kickboxing icons such as Mirko Cro Cop. This is his other main style when it comes to fighting and yet again, we have to mention his 6’5” height.

When he’s not engaging in Muay Thai up close, Prochazka uses his long legs to pick off his opponents from distance. Before switching to MMA, Prochazka also trained kickboxing. This can often be seen in his stance as he is always ready to throw a roundhouse kick.

As you’d expect, fighting in the Light Heavyweight division, Prochazka is primarily a striker. This is because people can get knocked out in a single blow, whereas the lighter fighters typically favor grappling instead of striking martial arts. As we shall see next though, Prochazka can certainly grapple when called upon.

BJJ

At one point in his career, Prochazka infamously said “I don’t play Jiu Jitsu. Just ground and pound.” In fairness, at this point the vast majority of his wins had come by way of knockout, so there was perhaps some truth to his statement. However, you don’t become a UFC champion without knowing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Ironically, Prochazka did just that when he became the Light Heavyweight champion by using a rear naked choke on Glover Teixeira. Up until then, the fight had been wild with both men coming close to finishing it. Teixeira shot for a failed guillotine that allowed for Prochazka to take up the top position. He eventually sunk in a rear naked choke on Teixeira who was a decorated BJJ black belt. Previously, Prochazka had two other submission wins to his name but these were much earlier on in his career.

This shows that despite his comments, Prochazka is clearly skilled in the art of submission grappling. You don’t survive a Glover Teixera guillotine and then go on to choke him by not training some form of BJJ. Of course, ground and pound may be his preferred choice of attack whilst on the floor. Nonetheless, this is evidence that Prochazka knows BJJ, even if he doesn’t formally train it.

Street Fighting

Ironically, a lot of self-defense advocates claim that their techniques would be too dangerous for MMA which has rules. However, the reality is that these people would not last in the UFC. Having said this, Jiri Prochazka is a rare case of someone who actually came from a street-fighting background and applied it to MMA.

Obviously, Prochazka wasn’t using groin strikes or eye pokes in his MMA career but you could still argue that his street fighting experience would have helped him in terms of learning how to fight, especially in the early days. For a few years in his youth, he was actually a football hooligan who would partake in mass brawls every now and then. This would certainly help ease the nerves of being a pro fighter where there are more rules and safety involved.

Summary

Without a doubt, Prochazka is a true mixed martial artist. Whilst fighting in Japan for Rizin, he was even dubbed The Czech Samurai by fans. In fact, he has also claimed to live by the bushido code. This means that outside of his MMA career, he also lives a humble, lowkey lifestyle based on gratitude and traditional martial arts values. This is a far cry from his earlier, hooligan days and modern fighters such as Conor McGregor could learn a thing or two about his philosophies.

To sum up, Jiri Prochazka’s most dominant fighting style is Muay Thai which is blended with kickboxing. However, he is also a solid grappler which means he’s very versatile and can mix it up when needed.