JRE MMA Show #165: Jiří Procházka on the Warrior Mindset, Losing to Pereira and Fighting in the Flow

High-Level Overview

Joe Rogan sits down with Jiří Procházka, the Czech former UFC light heavyweight champion, fresh off a spectacular knockout of Jamal Hill that followed two losses to Alex Pereira. Procházka explains how he prepared for the Hill fight despite a flu that hit days before, what he changed after the second Pereira loss, and the philosophy behind his unusual style: fighting with his hands down in a state of flow, training in nature, sleeping in the mountains, spending days in dark rooms, and living by samurai ideals. He is unusually candid about how he got lost in spirituality before the second Pereira fight, even believing black magic was at work, and how he found his way back by trusting only himself.

Rogan, meanwhile, lays out his case for reforming MMA: eliminating weight cutting, adding weight classes, replacing the cage with an open mat, adding judges and changing gear rules. The tone is warm, philosophical and sometimes funny, with Procházka searching for words in English and Rogan helping him along. The conversation swings between fight breakdowns, martial arts philosophy and ideas for the future of the sport.

The Discussion Explores:

• Preparing for Jamal Hill through a flu, an altitude camp and a lighter weigh-in
• Fighting with hands down, reading opponents and staying in the flow
• How the second loss to Alex Pereira forced a reset in his training and mind
• His martial arts origins, from Shotokan and judo to Muay Thai and Kyokushin
• Training in nature, inspired by Mas Oyama, and the samurai ideal of balance
• Ego, trash talk and letting the fight do the promotion
• Rogan's proposals to end weight cutting and reform MMA rules
• Getting lost in spirituality, black magic and finding his way back to himself

Deep Dive into Main Ideas

Preparing for Jamal Hill

Procházka reveals he had a flu with fever for about five days shortly before the Hill fight. Surprisingly, he's partly glad about it, because he tends to push his preparation too hard and overtrain, and the illness forced him to rest. His philosophy is to get one percent better every day, and even when he can't train, he visualizes training in meditation. Before this camp he trained for about four weeks at the UFC Performance Institute in Mexico City, at roughly 7,700 feet of altitude, with blood tests before and after, and worked specifically on lessons from the Pereira fights, including keeping his hands up a bit more.

Rogan notes that analyst Luke Thomas pointed out Procházka walked into the cage at only 208 pounds. Procházka explains he overdid it in the sauna the night before weigh-ins, alternating sauna and cold plunge, and weighed in at 91 kilograms, well under the 93.5 limit, so he hid from the other fighters and drank two liters of water. Rogan says he looked lean and faster than ever.

Hands Down and the Flow State

Rogan says the evolution was obvious in the Hill fight: sharp counters, head movement and a sequence in which Procházka slipped a punch, landed a straight left and then a right hook that dropped Hill. Procházka explains that keeping his hands down is his natural posture and works when he's in a state between flow and discomfort, where he sees and feels everything and doesn't need to defend. The next levels are reacting before an opponent's movement starts and eventually reading their intentions. In the second Pereira fight, he admits, he got hit at the end of the first round and then was too courageous, keeping his hands down when he should have been more defensive.

He credits his two longtime coaches and values a tight circle and loyalty, saying you only become a master by going deep with the same people. He studies opponents by watching them once, focusing on their attitude, energy and how they handle breaks in a fight rather than memorizing tape. He says he began working on this feel for his opponent around his Rizin title fight, when he realized he had been "too nice and needed to add controlled aggression. At his best, he says, there's no difference between him and his opponent: they're both just part of the movement. Rogan sums it up: if you want to learn about yourself go fight."

Martial Arts Roots and Rising Through Rizin

Procházka started with Shotokan karate and judo at school, then moved to Muay Thai because he wanted something more potent, and has trained in Thailand, including before his title fight with Glover Teixeira. He says old martial arts movies like Jean-Claude Van Damme's Kickboxer sparked his love of fighting, and he watched 300 while sick before the Hill fight. He had his first fight at 18 or 19 and wanted a championship career from the start.

He turned down earlier UFC interest because he wanted to become champion in Japan's Rizin first and arrive fully prepared. Rogan praises this, comparing it to how boxing managers carefully build a fighter against different styles before a title shot, while the UFC often throws fighters "to the wolves. Procházka's UFC run moved fast: a win over Volkan Oezdemir, then the famous spinning elbow knockout of Dominick Reyes, then a title shot. Looking back at the Oezdemir fight, he sees raw power and chaos, and warns that overconfidence is dangerous: Ego will take you to another line." Ego pulls you out of the flow and leaves openings, which is why he values coaches who can calm him down.

Training in Nature and the Way of the Warrior

Procházka explains his famous outdoor training, punching and kicking padded trees near his cottage. Around 2014 he was inspired by Mas Oyama, founder of Kyokushin karate, who trained alone in the mountains for more than a year to forge an unshakable mind. Procházka took a tent into the mountains for a week or two, ran, punched rocks and tried to fight nature, only to realize that there is no fighting in nature, just life trying to survive. After the second Pereira loss he went to Japan to earn a Kyokushin black belt and live the tradition rather than just imagine it.

He grew up in a village where young men constantly tried to prove their strength, sometimes dangerously, and he says samurai ideals and the Bushido code help him channel that energy calmly into the cage. He speaks about mastering the breath as the most primal tool, and about thoughts being a good servant but a bad master, along with the Japanese idea of kaizen, small daily improvements. Rogan shares that he thinks young people today have things too easy and should "choose to do something hard" for their development, noting that this is the first era in history when poor people are commonly obese. Both argue phones create a fake life that hinders potential.

Respect, Ego and Trash Talk

Procházka and Hill had a drink together after the fight; he bought Hill vodka, telling him "we fight together we drink together." He says there are no real enemies in the end, and he wants to be the same person before, during and after a fight. Rogan agrees that fighters like Procházka and Pereira show you don't need to speak English or insult anyone's family to become popular, because "the fight will do the promo." Rogan also wishes champions weren't burdened with so much promotion before fights.

Rogan acknowledges trash talk can be an effective weapon, citing how Conor McGregor got under José Aldo's skin until Aldo rushed in and got knocked out, and how Gordon Ryan's trash talk fuels his popularity. But it also adds pressure to the person talking. Procházka says a truly confident man has no need to talk trash, and that for him it would be an ego line rather than his true center.

Rogan's Case for Ending Weight Cutting

When Rogan asks about moving down to middleweight, Procházka says he first wants to show consistency and win the light heavyweight title, then perhaps become a two-division champion. That leads Rogan into his strongest argument of the episode: "weight cutting should not exist." He cites Josh Barnett discussing Arman Tsarukyan's withdrawal, Islam Makhachev's struggles after an early-morning fight in Australia left him little recovery time, and Max Holloway saying he'd never cut to 145 again after fighting Ilia Topuria. He points out that Alex Pereira reportedly weighed 185 one day and 226 the next, calling weight cutting sanctioned cheating that dehydrates fighters' brains a day before a cage fight.

His proposal mirrors how USADA's random drug testing changed the sport: random weight checks, weight classes every 10 pounds instead of gaps like 185 to 205, and open weight instead of a 265-pound heavyweight limit, so fighters compete at their natural size. He acknowledges it wouldn't be easy and that some fighters would be sacrificed, as happened when steroid users fell off after testing began.

Reimagining the Rules: No Cage, More Judges, Covered Fingers

Rogan also argues MMA should be fought on an open matted floor rather than in a cage, because the cage lets fighters wall-walk up, stall and pin opponents against an unnatural barrier, and would allow soccer kicks and knees to the head of a grounded opponent to be safer since the downed fighter could move. He wants at least five judges instead of three, gloves that cover the fingers to prevent eye pokes, a ban on steel Thai cups, and supports the new rule that stops fighters from gaming the downed-opponent rule by touching a hand to the mat. Procházka, half-joking, says eye pokes should be legal because eyes are a vulnerable weapon and fighters would prepare for them, and they laugh about Eddie Bravo's "ultimate sack fighting" and videos of monks taking kicks to the groin.

Procházka pushes back on some traditional practices as not useful for real fighting, but also says kata and forms may be written into your body and surface in hard moments. They discuss research into writing skills directly into the brain, like Neo in The Matrix. Procházka says many of his best moves, including his spinning elbows, were never drilled; they just came from the flow. Rogan brings up Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings, which taught that a great swordsman must be balanced, able to write poetry and do calligraphy, and they agree that when a single wrong word or move could cost your life, you must be completely present and pure.

Lost in Spirituality: The Pereira Loss and Black Magic

The most personal moment comes when Rogan asks about Procházka's belief that black magic was used against him before the Pereira rematch. He explains that he does everything to extremes and wanted to understand the source of spiritual power and whether it could be used as a weapon in the cage. He went so deep that he got lost and began believing spiritual guides rather than himself, which he calls the way to hell. He was focused on his opponent rather than on himself, and that, he says, was his opponent's biggest power. Rogan suggests what felt like magic may have been the aura that prime champions like Mike Tyson or Anderson Silva carry, which makes you think about them instead of yourself.

He describes the second Pereira loss as the hardest experience of his life, one he's reluctant even to describe, especially for someone who values honor. It taught him the power of true meditation and honest self-talk, and to stop doing "bullshit training and focus only on what matters. For this camp he trained in Japan, then at altitude in Mexico, then with his team in Brno. His lesson: the biggest special weapon is to be yourself." He still spends days in total darkness and silence, sometimes fasting, to observe his mind, and says after about three days something like a third eye opens and you see who you truly are. He avoids reading comments or social media during camp.

What Comes Next

Procházka wants a title shot and names Magomed Ankalaev, Alex Pereira and Jan Błachowicz as the challenges he sees. Rogan praises Błachowicz as made of iron and still elite in his forties. At 32, Procházka says he's enjoying this life, describing his path as a warrior who must be willing to let his old personality die and be reborn. He says he watches himself like a work of art in meditation, and wants to live in the present moment with his best ideas. When he stares down opponents, he says, he's simply present: "I'm everywhere."

Conclusion

This episode is a rare look inside one of the most unusual minds in MMA. Procházka's story is about balance: raw aggression refined into flow, ego kept on a leash, and a spiritual search that went too far before bringing him back to the simplest truth of trusting himself. His comeback against Jamal Hill shows the result of that reset. Rogan's passionate case against weight cutting and the cage adds a thought-provoking policy thread. For fight fans and anyone interested in the psychology of performance, it's a thoughtful, heartfelt conversation.

This is a summary of "JRE MMA Show #165 with Jiří Procházka" from The Joe Rogan Experience, giving you the GIST so you can decide if you want the REST.