Jamahal Hill will look to reclaim the title he never lost when he takes on Alex Pereira for the light heavyweight title, in the main event of the UFC’s milestone UFC 300 event.
Jamahal Hill beat Pereira’s head coach, Glover Teixeira, to claim the vacant title after Jiri Prochazka vacated it due to an injury of his own.
Just a few months after winning the 205lb belt at UFC 283, ‘Sweet Dreams’ Hill also vacated the strap after suffering an Achilles tendon injury in a pickup basketball game.
Jamahal Hill claims Alex Pereira only has ‘one way’ to win at UFC 300
After the 32-year-old vacated the title to allow for the division to move forward, the UFC booked Alex Pereira against Jiri Prochazka, after Pereira put on an impressive performance against Jan Blachowicz in his MMA light heavyweight debut.
Pereira finished Prochazka in the second round, becoming a two-weight UFC world champion, in just seven fights.
Despite the Brazilian’s impressive UFC tenure so far, Jamahal Hill has claimed that the fight ‘won’t go well’ for the 36-year-old and he is enjoying how much people are hyping Pereira up as a ‘mythical fighter’.
In an interview with Bodog Canada, Hill said: “I feel like I’m just better. I’ve said it in multiple interviews people don’t believe me, I am truly just better than him everywhere. It’s not going to go well for him that’s why I’m loving all of the talk and hype that Pereira is this mythical fighter.
“Build him up in your heads as big as you want, so when I lay him out you know how much further you need to start putting together where I am.” Hill said.
Pereira, the kickboxing specialist, has shown a few holes in his ground game over his last few fights and Hill believes that’s one of the reasons why he only has ‘one way’ he can win, which is by catching him with one shot.
“Whenever I started to break down the matchup, I realized the mismatch it truly is, it’s truly a mismatch. Can he catch me and knock me out, yes it’s a possibility to get caught and lose but short of that, he gets his a** whooped every single way, he has one way to win this fight.” Hill added.
‘Sweet Dreams’ offers prediction for the main event
This will be Hill’s first fight back from injury which could be a concern. Despite that, he believes he is going to knock Pereira out, but respects the Brazilian as a big personality in the sport.
“I’m knocking him the f*** out. And when I say this, this is no disrespect to Alex, I like Alex I think he’s funny, I think he brings attention and good energy and good charisma to this sport.” Hill explained.
If the former light heavyweight champion can dethrone Pereira with a knockout win, it will mark the seventh of his professional career, with his last knockout win coming against Thiago Santos back in 2022.
In Pereira’s two losses in MMA, he has been knocked out once by rival, Israel Adesanya and submitted in his MMA debut against Quemuel Ottoni.
The rest of the UFC 300 main card
The blockbuster card includes three title fights with nine former champions competing, and is being labeled as one of the greatest cards on paper, of all time.
The UFC 300 main card is as follows:
- Alex Pereira (9-2) vs Jamahal Hill (12-1) – Light heavyweight title fight
- Zhang Weili (24-3) vs Yan Xiaonan (17-3) – Women’s strawweight title fight
- Justin Gaethje (25-4) vs Max Holloway (25-7) – BMF title fight
- Bo Nickal (5-0) vs Cody Brundage (10-5)
- Charles Oliveira (34-9) vs Arman Tsarukyan (21-3)
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