Alex Pereira has revealed that his UFC 300 opponent Jamahal Hill possesses one key thing that sets him apart from more experienced foes he’s faced before.
Whilst the majority of fans and pundits are picking Alex Pereira to retain his light heavyweight title with relative ease this weekend at UFC 300, the legendary Brazilian kickboxer refuses to underestimate Sweet Dreams’ skillset.
Alex Pereira carries the momentum into UFC 300 main event
Heading into the main event of UFC 300 this weekend, the momentum is certainly on the side of the Brazilian champion – with ‘Poatan’ having earned a decision win over Jan Blachowicz in July 2023, followed by a brutal dispatching of Jiri Prochazka just a few months ago in November.
On the other side of the octagon and momentum swing, Jamahal Hill hasn’t competed in the UFC since January 2023, having spent much of the last 14 months on the sidelines recovering from a ruptured Achilles.
Alex Pereira admits one thing nullifies his experience over Hill
Alex Pereira not only retains the advantage over Jamahal Hill in terms of momentum, but also in terms of experience at world championship level thanks to both a successful middleweight title run, and an extensive kickboxing career.
Yet speaking to reporter and presenter Brett Okamoto via the ESPN MMA YouTube channel, Pereira actually admitted that ‘Sweet Dreams’ possesses the one key thing that he’s found often nullifies his superior experience: heart.
“Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you are the most technical or most experienced guy if you don’t have enough cardio, or if you don’t have enough heart.”
“In kickboxing, I’ve had fights with athletes who didn’t have that much experience, but they have strength, they have the will to win, the determination, right? I think these people are the most difficult [to beat].”
“Jamahal is a guy who has a lot of determination,” said the current light heavyweight champion, noting that in such a crazy and dramatic sport as MMA, heart and determination can often be the deciding factor for the outcome of a bout – or at least more so, over experience and ‘mileage’.
“I think there’s no point in a person having a lot of technique but not determination.”
As translated through his friend and coach Plinio Cruz, ‘Poatan’ doubled down on his view that willpower can trump experience on any given night: “Jamahal has shown to everybody that he has a lot of heart from his fights and Alex has studied those fights, so he definitely respects that.”
Inside knowledge from the legendary Glover Teixeira
Whilst Jamahal Hill might have turned to Israel Adesanya for advice on facing ‘Poatan’, the Brazilian also has someone with inside knowledge of Hill’s game in his corner – Glover Teixeira.
Teixeira was the last athlete to face ‘Sweet Dreams’ in the UFC, and Pereira is banking on that inside knowledge to help him get his hand raised on Saturday evening:
“It helps a lot right, Glover was there so he can give pointers on how strong he is, how he moves, how he behaves, how he feels but with all of the help, Alex is going to do his thing Saturday.”
Pereira himself also noted that it was “important” to have Glover be a part of his team heading into UFC 300, with the legendary light heavyweight veteran having earlier in the week compared his inside knowledge to that of Israel Adesanya’s to Hill:
“Izzy is a great fighter and for sure if he’s in anybody’s corner he’s going to be a help. Anybody that comes in and sees something different at a high level, he can be a help for sure…but it’s not something that’s going to be magic.”
Alex Pereira defends his light heavyweight world championship this weekend in the main event of UFC 300, set to go down from the T-Mobile Arena on April 13.