Jiří Procházka noticed, and he said so. In clips Ariel Helwani posted to X on Nov. 11, the former UFC light heavyweight champion pointed out that Carlos Ulberg has been allowed to hold the title while sidelined. Procházka says he never got that courtesy. When he was hurt and out of action, he told Helwani, the promotion had already approached him about giving up the belt.
“Yeah, a little bit surprised, because when I was injured and I didn’t fight, they already spoke with me to release the belt and all these things,” Procházka said.
He stopped well short of a feud. He said he thinks Ulberg fought to keep the belt with everything he has, that it doesn’t really bother him, and that he wishes the champion good health. Then he closed the thought the way he closes most of them: “but I’m coming.”
View post on X
Why Stirling
His road back runs through Navajo Stirling, and Procházka was open with Helwani about having doubts before taking the fight. He laid out the problem plainly: “Everybody knows he’s a young guy, he’s on a winning streak, he’s ranked low, and he’s going really fast.” For a former champion, he said, “It’s risky for somebody in a position like me.”
The reason he said yes anyway, by his account, is that the bigger names said no. Procházka told Helwani that Ankalaev and Costa both turned the fight down, and that the back and forth with the division left him “a little bit pissed off” because nobody at light heavyweight wanted to fight him.
View post on X
There’s a second layer. Stirling trains with Ulberg as a sparring partner, so Procházka expects a camp that has studied him closely. He doesn’t seem worried about it. “They know me, but I think they’re working with the old version of Jiří,” he said. “I think they will prepare for another man.”
The nettles
The same conversation produced the strangest detail of the day. Procházka explained to Helwani that he whips himself with stinging nettles, and that he treats it as a ceremony meant to clean his body. “You can try it, and all night you will not sleep,” he warned.
He said he started because he wanted to feel the pain, and only later learned how nettles had been used historically to spark immunity and to help people grow stronger and face pain. He has done it, in his words, “Many, many times. And many long, sleepless nights.” The point, as he describes it, is training the mind to get through suffering: “Every pain you face, you can be stronger than.”
View post on X
My take: Procházka has a fair point on the belt, and he made it more gracefully than most fighters would. If the UFC leaned on one injured champion to vacate, the next injured champion should get the same phone call, and fighters waiting in line deserve to know which rule is in effect. On Stirling, he’s right that the math is bad for him. A low-ranked, fast-rising fighter who spars with the champion has everything to gain, and a former titleholder has a ranking to lose. He took it because his phone stopped ringing with better offers. Then again, this is a man who lies awake all night with his skin burning from nettles on purpose. A risky fight booked out of frustration is about the most Procházka thing he could have done.
