Remember the W: Jiri Prochazka’s wild fight against Vadim Nemkov

Jiri Prochazka’s phenomenal 11-1 run at Japan’s Rizin FF later set up his meteoric rise through the UFC rankings. With ten out of his eleven wins at the Japanese organisation coming by the way of KO, the Czech became a favourite of the eastern crowd, which led to UFC taking notice of the young samurai.

Today, Prochazka is set to face Jamahal Hill on January 18, in Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome, in his seventh UFC appearance. This former champs fight for the longest time was on many people’s dream matchups list.

As we are getting closer to the first PPV card of the year, why not take a look at Prochazka’s 2015 victory over future dominant Bellator champion, Vadim Nemkov?

The fight

In the very first 30 seconds of the Rizin Gran Prix semi-final, Jiri clips his Russian counterpart with the most Jiri right hand you’ll ever see. The Czech followed up with a knee, before Nemkov entered with a double leg and slammed his opponent. Having toughed out of Nemkov’s D’Arce and guillotine chokes, Prochazka brings the action back to the feet.

After getting taken down again, “BJP” threatens Vadim with an armbar, giving the Japanese public visual of the Russian’s elbow almost being snapped in the process. Nemkov then proceeds to mash Jiri with some Fedor-esque ground and pound. Prochazka answers with some Derick Lewis, as he just stands up.

On the feet, Jiri attacks with kicks, while eating everything Nemkov is throwing his way. A magical sweep while defending Nemkov’s double leg attempt sees Czech casually entering top mount. Vadim gives up his back before reversing the position to enter Jiri’s guard.

By that point, round of a fight in any other league would be over, but pre-2018 Rizin was different, since the first round was ten whole draining minutes.

Some understandably less explosive g&p from Vadim. Prochazka gets up to then get taken down again. Heavy breathing of both athletes is heard in every corner of Saitama Super Arena.

Exhausted Nemkov looks at his corner, which implies he’d go for another armbar from the mount. It’s easy to shame them for an unintelligent decision now, when everybody knows just how good samurai is at escaping submissions. But keep in mind, at the time, Jiri Prochazka was just some bald guy making his second appearance at Rizin.

Back to the fight, Vadim doesn’t get the armbar, and Jiri gets on top. “Two minutes left!” is heard from both corners, right before Prochazka sinks in a rear naked choke.

Vadim survives the attempt and even gets on top of his Czech counterpart. Jiri gets up yet again, as both agree to brawl at the last seconds of the round; Prochazka swings big an lands a knee, which sets him off balance, allowing Nemkov to technically get a takedown by the end.

Looking almost dead by the end of ten minutes, Vadim is unable to continue. Jiri Prochazka wins via TKO.

Their careers afterwards

As already mentioned, Prochazka and Nemkov have achieved the very height of the UFC and Bellator, respectively.

Losing his next fight on the same day against “King Mo” Lawal, Jiri then went on a 13-fight win streak, winning the UFC belt in a fight for centuries with Glover Teixeira. After the crowning, Jiri lost two out of his last three to Alex Pereira, with a victory over Alexander Rakic in between.

Suffering a loss in his next fight, Nemkov went on a 12-fight undefeated tear, winning and defending his Bellator strap four times.