Jiri Prochazka needed a miracle to win his fight against Glover Teixeira at UFC 275 and he got it with seconds to spare.
With 28 seconds to go in the last round, down on two of the three judges’ cards the Czech locked in a rear-naked choke to win UFC’s light heavyweight title.
The main event of the UFC 275 card was a bloody, violent spectacle to behold full of near finishes and momentum swings.
In the first round, Teixeira secured an early takedown and floored Prochazka, following it with ground and pound before Prochazka reversed and landed heavy shots of his own.
The second round was much the same with the Czech rocking Teixeira with heavy punches before Teixeira got into full mount and cut open Prochazka with heavy blows.
Prochazka dominated the third round by pummeling Teixeira from top control before Teixeira almost got the win by locking in a triangle choke in the fourth only for Prochazka to signal that he was okay.
The final round saw Teixeira dominate once again landing a takedown and returning to the ground and pound game only for Prochazka to reverse and lock in the rear-naked choke to secure the comeback victory and the light heavyweight belt.
With the victory, Prochazka, 29, moves to 3-0 in the Octagon.
He made his UFC debut in July 2020 and immediately became a contender with knockout wins over former title challengers Dominick Reyes and Volkan Oezdemir. He is now riding a 13-fight winning streak overall.
Teixeira, meanwhile, failed to successfully defend his title after winning it in stunning fashion against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 267 last October. The 42-year-old Brazilian’s six-fight winning streak came to an end.
Meanwhile, in another fight, Valentina Shevchenko withstood a physical challenge from Taila Santos to retain her title via a split decision.
Zhang Weili returned to winning ways by knocking out Joanna Jędrzejczyk earlier on the UFC 275.
The victory puts Weili back into a title bout for the strawweight title while the loss marked the end of the road for ędrzejczyk who left her gloves in the Octagon as she bid farewell to the sport.
