Former double champion Henry Cejudo has shared his official prediction for the main event of UFC 300 between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill.
There aren’t many fighters or commentators who possess the same level of analytical skill as Henry Cejudo, so when ‘Triple C’ breaks down a fight; you better believe that there’s a good chance he’s right on the money.
Alex Pereira’s meteoric rise to UFC superstardom
Headlining UFC 300 this weekend at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will be Alex Pereira defending his light heavyweight title against former champion Jamahal Hill, who is coming back after over a year on the sidelines with injury.
Despite being one of the biggest stars in the sport, UFC 300 will still only be Alex Pereira’s eighth fight in the promotion; having been catapulted into the middleweight title picture following an extensive kickboxing career.
Since losing the 185lb title to Israel Adesanya, ‘Poatan’ earned a split decision win over former champion Jan Blachowicz before winning the 205lb belt against Jiri Prochazka in November 2023.
Henry Cejudo hails Alex Pereira’s comeback ability ahead of UFC 300
Whilst Pereira might be only a slight betting favorite over Hill, it appears that the majority of the MMA community is siding with the champion to successfully defend his belt – with over 70% of Tapology Community Picks so far being for the Brazilian, with almost 95% of those picks being for KO.
Speaking via the official UFC 300 betting breakdown with Jon Anik and Nick Kalikas, former double champion Henry Cejudo agreed that “I think the betting line is pretty straight on,” before sharing his official prediction for how the main event will go down:
“Every time I analyze a fight and break a fight down, I try to see who it was who really has to make the adjustment according to the power, and the person with the power right now that’s the most dangerous guy, is Alex Pereira.”
Cejudo acknowledged that Jamahal Hill might forgo a more patient gameplan in the hopes of getting Alex Pereira out of there in the early rounds, with the future Hall of Famer noting that ‘Poatan’ does have a habit of getting hurt early:
“Because we’ve seen in the past [that] a guy like Alex Pereira does get hurt early, but if you allow him to get warmed up, he only starts getting better – we saw it against Israel Adesanya, who did knock him out, but that being said, the dude is a zombie.”
‘Poatan’ has only ever been knocked out once before by KO in MMA; that being against rival Adesanya back in early 2023, he also suffered one KO loss in kickboxing.
Whilst Cejudo argued that Hill’s best chance to win will come in the opening exchanges, he doesn’t see the Brazilian powerhouse relinquishing the title on Saturday evening.
“I think that if there’s any way, he [Hill] could potentially get it done, he gets it done at the beginning of the first or the beginning of the second, but other than that; that fight continues to keep going on that Alex Pereira train…So I got to give it to Alex Pereira.”
- GREAT POWER BUT: Michael Bisping makes official prediction for UFC 300 co-main event
Pereira smashes PowerKube record set by Ngannou
Back in 2018, Francis Ngannou made headlines around the world when he set a new record via the PowerKube for the hardest punch ever recorded on the machine.
The former heavyweight champion registered an outstanding 129,000 units of power, the equivalent of 96 horsepower or being struck by a Ford Escort traveling as fast as it can – according to Dana White.
The record was beaten by Joe Pyfer with a score of 170,000, although there was some controversy around the score not being officially recorded by the adjudicators at the time.
Now, the most powerful punch stat in the UFC has changed hands once again, with footage emerging online of Alex Pereira scoring a jaw-dropping 191,000.
Alex Pereira vs Jamahal Hill is the main event of UFC 300, scheduled for April 13 in Las Vegas.