The T-Mobile Arena on Saturday erupted after the 18,000 plus fans in attendance roared upon seeing Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira lay waste to former LHW champion and challenger, Jiri Prochazka. To ‘The Czech Samurai’s’ credit, he did survive the first round, unlike their last outing, but couldn’t escape the Brazilian’s ballistic head kick that sent him crashing to the canvas.
Reflecting on Pereira’s spectacular performance on ESPN’s Post Show, boxing pundit and renowned trainer, Teddy Atlas extolled the 36-year-old, citing his unique ability, which he seemingly shares with boxing champ, Terence Crawford.
“The eyes of (Alex) Pereira, he sees everything, nothing distracts him. He is tunnel vision. He is the epitome of what they meant when they defined that word – tunnel vision, he sees everything, he’s got radar, he’s X-ray vision, he sees things that other people don’t see. Terence Crawford in boxing is that kind of a guy.”
In layman’s terms, the boxing guru meant that Pereira much like ‘Bud’ has an almost predator-like ability to track the opponents’ movement and time theirs accordingly. Besides, while noting the Brazilian’s “X-ray vision,” comparing him to the WBA, WBO welterweight champion, the 67-year-old also highlighted the killer calmness in Pereira and cited that it is his ability to stay dialed in that makes him a knockout artist.
On the other hand, the defeated Jiri Prochazka is left to reconsider his choices.
Prochazka issues a statement after the devastating loss to Pereira.
In a span of eight months, Prochazka has lost twice, and that too to the same man – Alex Pereira. Generally, when fighters fall this far behind, they hit rock bottom and it takes a great deal of willpower to pull themselves out of that hole. However, ‘The Czech Samurai’ is not the kind to quit on the stool. In fact, despite the heavy-handed R2 loss, Prochazka knows what needs to be done.
Sharing his thoughts via an IG post, the former LHW champion thanked his fans for the support and congratulated Pereira on his incredible victory. At the same time, Prochazka also mentioned how he needs to pull himself back up again and better his game, saying,
“Only one thing goes on my mind, that I need to evolve to the next level, or don’t fight again. So simple, to be the strongest, this is the way. Thank you. See you in the gym.”
While the two subsequent losses were surely difficult for ‘BJP’ to accept, his fans need not lose hope since Prochazka being the warrior he is will certainly be back as he teased a new evolution in the works.
