UFC welterweight fighter Matt Brown believes that Jiří Procházka should have been given the chance to see the actual and final outcome of his bout against Alex Pereira at UFC 295. “The Immmortal” said that he rather wanted to see the Czech struggle and get more beatings as that would give the fighter the proper ending for his fight.
Procházka faced “Poatan” last week, with the Brazilian winning the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion belt. Poatan sealed the fight by delivering a short left uppercut and a series of ground-and-pound moves. The bout ended at 04:08 of Round 2.
Not everyone was happy about how the fight ended, with fellow fighters and fans pointing out the early stoppage of Marc Goddard. “Denisa,” nonetheless, immediately agreed post-fight that the referee made the right decision and reiterated his words in a recent Instagram post, saying, “What happened happened.”
Brown praised Procházka’s humility in his move, noting how the fighter embodies “The Czech Samurai” alias.
“Personally, I think that’s Jiri’s humility coming out of him,” said Brown on The Fighter vs. The Writer podcast. “I think if it was the worst stoppage in the world, you wouldn’t see him complain. He might say something about it, but I don’t think he’d complain about it. He’s just that kind of guy. He’s got the samurai spirit deep running in his blood. I don’t think you’re going to hear from him any real complaints and I have a lot of respect for him for carrying himself that way. But the ref, you’ve just got to let it go.”
Despite this, Brown admitted that it was indeed an early stoppage for fighters like Poatan and Denisa, who are both ranked and fought for the championship.
“It was definitely early,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I don’t think there’s any question about that, especially at this level and especially at the championship level. Not that there should be a difference, but there should be a difference between amateur and then pro. At that level, it was certainly early.”
Brown, nonetheless, was quick to describe the situation of Goddard, although the fighter stressed how referees could determine the career of fighters with a simple mistake. Brown also recalled the Neil Magny-Hector Lombard 2016 bout, which fans said should have been stopped earlier by referee Steve Perceval as it was already obvious who the winner was. At that time, Magny landed a UFC-record 100 ground strikes.
“Marc Goddard isn’t known for doing that so I do have sympathy for the referees and the position that they’re in,” Brown said. “It’s a difficult situation, especially when I’m sure that the refs learn about concussions and brain health and things like that, and that makes it complicated when you know this could affect the guy for the rest of his life negatively, but also if you stop it too soon.”
In the end, Brown believes that Goddard should have given Procházka the ending he deserved, even though it was obvious that he wouldn’t be able to reverse the moment and defeat Pereira.
“I don’t think [Prochazka] would have got out either, by the way,” Brown added. “I think Alex would have finished and Jiri probably would have taken more punishment. I do think that would have happened, but I’d rather see him take that punishment and go out properly on his sword or his shield.”
