Dana White reveals how Jiri Procházka ‘destroyed his shoulder’
When Jiri Prochazka sustained a terrible shoulder injury that forced him out of the UFC 282 championship match, he was frantically counting down the days until his first light heavyweight title defense.
Prochazka decided to give up the 205-pound title instead of prolonging the division while he was out due to the severity of the injury to his shoulder. As a result, the fight between Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev, in which the light heavyweight title has been at stake, was made the new UFC 282 main event.
Prochazka hinted on social media that he planned to return in six months, but owing to the seriousness of his shoulder injury, UFC president Dana White anticipates a much longer wait before he can contest once more.
Speaking at the podcast of Paddy Pimblett, Dana White revealed that the doctor was with us as well, and he advised us to start approaching this situation realistically. UFC President persuaded the Czech native to take his time and recover from a gruesome injury. White convinced him to relinquish the gold strap as he can’t hold up the division.
White claims that Prochazka's shoulder injury occurred when he was preparing for his rematch with Glover Teixeira, but the majority of the harm to his arm came from what transpired after.
“That night when it all went down and we had our doctor look at him, the doctor literally said in all the years of the UFC, this is the worst shoulder injury we’ve ever seen,” White said. “It’s pretty nasty. Him being the f****** savage that he is, he still wanted to fight. No, you can’t fight, kid. He tore it good.
“What happened was it popped out and he had some guys there at the gym [try to put it back in socket] and it f****** ripped the s*** out of it and destroyed his shoulder. I’ll tell you, tell him, tell all the fighters, if anything happens to you, jump in a f****** car and go to the hospital. We will pay for everything. People think that these guys at the gym can fix your shoulder, do this s***, do that s***, don’t even risk it. Just go to the hospital. It’s crazy.”
White chose to give up the title while he recovers from shoulder surgery because he anticipates that Prochazka will be out of business for a considerable amount of time. Prochazka will still be considered the best light heavyweight in the world despite giving up the championship, according to White, and he'll have the opportunity to win it once he's fit again.
Unfortunately, according to White, Prochazka won't have that chance until either Blachowicz or Ankalaev have already defended the belt. In light of Prochazka's absence, White said that the former champion Glover Teixeira is now unquestionably the top challenger in the classification, and all indications are that, following UFC 282, he will face either Blachowicz or Ankalaev.
“100 percent [Glover is next],” White said. “The fight was offered to Glover. He didn’t want to take the fight. It will probably be two fights before Jiri comes back so it would be Glover.”