Jiri Prochazka is standing firm on his belief that he showed "mercy" to Carlos Ulberg in their UFC 327 main event, despite suffering a first-round knockout loss in Miami.
Prochazka was stopped by Ulberg in the opening frame of their vacant light heavyweight title fight, a bout in which Ulberg tore his right ACL early on. Prochazka has maintained that he recognized the injury and chose not to fully capitalize on it, repeatedly framing his approach as "mercy."
He later described his mindset as effectively "sparring" and waiting for the referee to step in after he hurt Ulberg, again invoking "mercy" to explain why he did not press harder for the finish.
In the aftermath, Prochazka has gone as far as to predict that he will regain the light heavyweight title before Ulberg returns from his injury layoff. Meanwhile, Ulberg considers calls for a rematch based on Prochazka’s "mercy" claim to be unreasonable.
The result at UFC 327 adds another setback to Prochazka’s run at 205 pounds. Since previously vacating the light heavyweight title without a defense due to injury, he has now suffered three losses in subsequent light heavyweight title fights.
