Jan Blachowicz is set to defend his UFC light heavyweight championship for a second time against veteran Glover Teixeira at UFC 266 in September.
The Pole was impressive in his first successful title defence, a dominant unanimous decision against UFC middleweight king Israel Adesanya at UFC 259.
That was his latest victory in a five-fight run that has seen him defeat top names in Dominick Reyes, Corey Anderson, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold.
Jiri Prochazka is another European light heavyweight who has garnered a lot of attention of late.
The former Rizin champion and 2015 World Grand Prix finalist has scored two big knockout victories since joining the UFC roster in 2020. His last win came in spectacular fashion with a spinning back elbow KO over the aforementioned Reyes.
With his stock rising, the Czech striker is apparently in negotiations to serve as a reserve fighter if either Blachowicz or Teixeira can’t make it to the Octagon for 4 September.
“I don’t know if it’s official or [if] I can speak about it publicly,” Prochazka said on the Czech “Fair Play Thinker” podcast. [H/T Sherdog] “All I can say is that we are under negotiations so I can be the reserve fighter in the belt dispute between Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira. But we didn’t sign anything yet.”
In his first fight in the UFC, Prochazka knocked out former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir in the second round at UFC 251, back in July last year.
