Sherdog's Top 10: Greatest UFC Debuts

6. (Tie) Jiri Prochazka

It was a lot harder to establish oneself as an instant star by 2020 than it was in the 90s or 00s, which account for eight entries on this list, or even 2010, the most recent debut aside from Prochazka's. There are a lot more fighters to defeat to make it to the top nowadays and there are far more fights, and in turn, far more impressive debuts to be excited by. Even more amazing is to do something in 2020 that MMA fans have never seen before, yet Prochazka accomplished both, finishing second on my list. While Prochazka was a longtime Rizin champion before joining the UFC, he found himself a moderate +165 underdog against Volkan Oezdemir, then a top 10 light heavyweight and recent UFC title challenger. There were a lot of question marks about Prochazka, with many dismissing the Czech samurai as a pure hype-job, having feasted on a slew of washed-up and weaker foes in Japan. Meanwhile, Oezdemir had proven himself in the UFC knocking out other top contenders in “no time” at all, befitting his nickname. Sure, Oezdemir had a grappling weakness, but the striker Prochazka wasn't likely to take advantage. And what's more, Oezdemir had a chin of pure titanium, having never been knocked out on the feet or even seemingly hurt, despite facing a number of feared knockout artists. Certainly, this was a hell of a challenge. Would Prochazka be up to it? In true anime fashion, Prochazka thought it was far too easy! No, he had to inject another degree of difficulty. So Prochazka spent the entire fight...with his hands down. Yes, against one of the most feared strikers in the world, who had slept a striker as good as Jimi Manuwa in just 42 seconds, Prochazka refused to even put his hands up. This was beyond insanity; I had never seen anything like it in 25 years of watching MMA, and I haven't seen the like in the three years since. Did Prochazka get knocked out for his efforts, as even the great Anderson Silva did when showboating against Chris Weidman? No. Instead, he became the first man to ever knock out the iron chinned Oezdemir, leaving him snoring on the canvas less than a minute into Round 2. Personally, I was awestruck by this debut. This was an approach to fighting the MMA world had never seen before. This was a style of striking and incredible punching power we had never seen before. In terms of surpassing expectations and achieving the unfathomably spectacular, Prochazka-Oezdemir was a diamond of unparalleled excellence.

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