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UFC 295’s main event between Jiri Prochazka and Alex Periera saw a new light heavyweight champion crowned in a brief, but action-packed bout.
The impressive nature of Pereira’s win had some pundits declaring that the Brazilian is speed-running a UFC Hall of Fame career.
Bloody Elbow’s Evan Zivin wrote, “while most fighters spend their entire careers chasing greatness, Pereira has been able to ensnare it twice within a span of just two years. That’s either an indication of how great the man is or an indictment of how depleted and vulnerable the two MMA weight classes he competes in truly are right now.”
Jamahal Hill not impressed by UFC’s new LHW champ
But not everyone is basking in Pereira’s glory.
“Oh well,” Jamahal Hill said from his cageside seat. “Hey, I don’t give a ****. Whoever it is, y’all know where the crown really is. It’s right here. Bang.”
Hill was champ until he tore his Achilles tendon at a UFC branded pickup basketball game during this year’s International Fight Week.
Hill’s injury led to some discussion between Ariel Helwani and Jiri Prochazka in the immediate aftermath.
Hill didn’t care for the tone of that discussion and Hill proceeded to threaten MMA’s “top journalist.”
“First of all, we all know Ariel, the nerdy, goofy, soft, punk dude who’s admitted multiple times: Oh I wouldn’t fight. I wouldn’t fight. I don’t think I could dare. What if violence… Acts like, oh, like somebody’s Nana or something.
“Has the nerve to disrespect fighters on the show while claiming to be a real journalist that’s here for the fighters, that speaks for the fighters, that’s all about the fighters, that’s all about this and that. And the guys that can do the thing that you can never do, put food on your table, this is how you eat, right? Through what we do. So this video is another example (of the) disrespect that we as Fighters get from punks like this.”
Jamahal Hill trapped in bus by protestors
Even though Jamahal Hill wasn’t fighting this week, he still made headlines.
Hill managed to find his way into the middle of one of the protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“We saw the parade of people coming and we saw all these flags, then we were like, ‘Oh, man. We’re about to get stuck in this,’” Hill’s manager Brian Butler said in an interview with MMA Junkie. “People were saying, ‘Go, step on the gas. Step on the gas.’ People started trickling over because we were at the very front. I think they were curious because it was a big Sprinter van, so they started coming up and putting their signs and stuff up on the window.
“Then they got a look inside and they could see it was UFC security in there, and they were like, ‘Oh, UFC people.’ Then they started saying stuff like, you know, just mob mentality stuff. Nothing other than that sheer energy that was going on. It was like, ‘UFC people are bitches,’ UFC people are this and that.
“Then that kind of infuriated Jamahal. Jamahal started seeing red, so it was an issue trying to get him calmed down. But it started escalating pretty quickly. … It went from zero to having the whole vehicle surrounded and banging on it. The windows started breaking, and then Jamahal said he saw someone pull out a knife and they slashed all our tires. It could have been a very bad situation, but it ended well. I do have to say that the UFC security and staff was on point. The people that were on the bus with us were calling for backup.”
Fortunately, everything calmed down and Hill was able to make it to Madison Square Garden in time to see Alex Pereira KO Jiri Prochazka.
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