INGLEWOOD — Jiří Procházka knew he had to do something different.
After getting knocked out by champion Alex Pereira in June in his effort to reclaim his light heavyweight title, Procházka committed himself to changing things up.
Procházka saw the fruits of his labor pay off when he recorded a third-round TKO of fellow former champ Jamahl Hill on the UFC 311 main card at Intuit Dome.
“I expected everything after my last fight,” said Procházka (31-5-1), who called out Periera, who was in attendance, after the fight. “I said … I don’t know how it was, but I wanted to have more hands up, so I hope it worked.”
Hill (12-3, 1 NC) appeared to wait wanting to counter Procházka, who often ducked under the punches or simply absorbed them. Procházka appeared happy to get touched in order to deliver his own punishment.
“Sometimes I need to catch some punches to release the true Jiří Procházka,” he said.
With the crowd staunchly behind him, Procházka did more than enough, but Hill, coming off his own knockout loss to Pereira in April, was more than game. Procházka dropped Hill with a crushing left to the jaw in the first round, which Hill weathered.
The fighters traded eye pokes in the second round, which started with Hill’s left eye already swelling. After the break, Hill shook off a straight right to the chin down the pipe. By the end of the round, Hill had seemed to do enough to tie the fight at one round apiece.
The end came when Procházka clipped Hill with a left and rocked him to the mat with a punishing right. Once Hill rose, Procházka tossed him down and rained down punches. Hill turtled up, with Procházka throwing hammerfists and strikes to the side of Hill’s head. At 3:01 of the round, referee Mike Beltran had seen enough and stopped the fight.
In other fights …
TKO for Almeida: No. 6 heavyweight Jaillton Almeida spent a good amount of his fight with No. 7 Serghei Spivac on the ground. And that’s where he ended it.
After several exchanges on the mat with reversals, the big men got to their feet before the Brazilian cracked Spivac (17-5) and took him down. Once he got Spivac on his stomach, Almeida (22-3) kept raining down punches before referee Jason Herzog called it with seven seconds left in the first round.
Raves for de Ridder: Two-division ONE Championship titleholder Reinier de Ridder passed his second stiff UFC test with flying colors.
Two months after tapping out Gerald Meerschaert in his UFC debut, the Dutch middleweight took Riverside native Kevin Holland down early, worked some ground-and-pound and sank in a rear-naked choke to force the tap at 3:31 of the first round.
With the win, de Reider (19-2) called out for a top-five opponent. Holland (26-13, 1 NC) lost for the fourth time in five fights.
Total takedowns: Payton Talbott, looking like the next big thing, was thrown in against veteran bantamweight Raoni Barcelos, who took the prospect down early and often to earn the unanimous decision.
The judges saw it 30-27, 30-27, 30-26 for the battle-tested Brazilian, who improved to 18-6. Talbott suffered his first loss in 10 fights.
Bekoev debuts dominantly: Azamat Bekoev (19-3) made a splash by knocking out Zachary Reese in his UFC debut.
The Russian middleweight took down the 6-foot-4 Reese (8-2) early in the round and fended off submission efforts and appeared to be working for position before unleashing a series of thunderous strikes. Referee Blake Grice stopped the fight after one last massive left with 3:04 left in the round turned out Reese’s lights.
Guskov gets the tap: No. 13 light heavyweight Bogdan Guskov weathered a first-round surprise from late replacement Billy Elekana to secure a second-round tapout.
Guskow (17-3) overcame an early takedown and Elekana taking his back for most of the opening round to cinch in a rear-naked choke, only to have the horn sound just before Elekana tapped.
In the second round, Guskov began to tee off on Elekana, who took the fight on eight days’ notice in injured Johnny Walker’s stead. Elekana (7-2-1) dropped to his knees and egged on Guskov, who threw more strikes before locking in a guillotine choke and getting the tap at 3:33.
Dawson smothers Ferreira: Lightweight Grant Dawson used his superb wrestling and grappling to get the unanimous-decision victory and spoil Diego Ferreira’s 40th birthday.
With a 30-27 score on all three cards, Dawson (23-2-1) has won three in a row and six of his past seven and snapped a modest two-win run for Ferreira (19-6).
Perez keeps streak alive: In a women’s bantamweight with Top 10 implications, Ailin Perez came away with the unanimous decision over Karol Rosa.
The judges saw it 29-28, 29-28, 30-27 for the 13th-ranked Perez, who has won five in a row to improve to 12-2. The ninth-ranked Rosa, with her fourth loss in seven fights, dropped to 18-7.
Big upset for Gafurov: Muin Gafarov celebrated with the crowd following his stunning upset of previously undefeated Rinya Nakamura.
With knockdowns in the first two rounds and after surviving a guillotine attempt in the third round, Gafurov (20-6) earned 30-27 scores from all three judges despite Nakamura (9-1) being a -625 favorite.
Sopaj delivers: Benardo Sopaj put a beating on a tough Ricky Turcios but couldn’t put him away before earning a unanimous decision
The judges scored it 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 for the Swedish bantamweight, who improved to 12-2. Turcios, who weathered a third-round knockdown, dropped to 13-5.
Team Dagestan starts strong: Tagir Ulanbekov, coached by former UFC lightweight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov, kicked off the card with a unanimous-decision victory over Clayton Carpenter.
Ulanbekov (17-2), ranked No. 11 in the flyweight division, gave Carpenter (8-1) his first loss via a 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 score.