Alex Pereira could give a surprising former opponent a ‘second chance’ at his UFC belt if he can win one more fight.
The Brazilian viciously knocked out Jamahal Hill in the main event of UFC 300 at the T-Mobile Arena back in April. But the former champion believes that an incident were Herb Dean opted not to temporarily stop the fight for an illegal blow after initially seeming to do so is the reason for his loss.
Since then Hill has been recovering from a knee injury, which forced him out of UFC 303 which the champion also headlined. He is now set to return at UFC 311 in January, facing fellow Pereira victim Jiri Prochazka.
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Alex Pereira offers ‘second chance’ to Jamahal Hill if he wins at UFC 311
After a bizarre back-and-forth between Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill, Alex Pereira decided to weigh in. He shared a photo of the pair facing off, branding Hill ‘my son’ and declaring that he may get another shot at the gold if he wins.
“Calm down, my son,” Pereira wrote in a tweet that has already been viewed over a million times in a matter of hours. “Pass this test and Dad will give you a second chance.”
It followed Hill telling Prochazka that his defeat to Pereira was more impressive than either of the Czech fighter’s because he was ‘caught’, while the others were dominant. “We had the same opponent last fight,” Hill said in a recent YouTube video.
“In your last performance, you got dominated. Dominated and knocked out. Completely shut down, completely exposed and then got done, bad, bro. You got did bad. I got caught, you got dominated, there’s a huge difference, you feel what I’m saying?
“My man’s (Pereira) literally had your ponytail leaning to the left. I hope you wear that same ponytail in LA so I can lean that motherf***er to the left right back for you… This is insane.”
Jamahal Hill hits back at Alex Pereira after ‘son’ jibe
In typical Jamahal Hill fashion, the brash Michigan native immediately got his reply ready for Pereira in another social media outburst. He maintains that his striking is some of the best in division, and that the Brazilian knew that when they first engaged.
“Beat it funny how you rushed lil a** roundtree [Khalil Rountree Jr] and dumbass Jiri like you were the man but waited until the refs got in the way to swing at me,” Hill wrote. “You will see me again at 100 per cent soon and we both know the fear that was in your heart!!”
Hill had been undefeated prior to facing Pereira, and had never actually lost his light-heavyweight title in the octagon. He was forced to vacate when an injury cost him a year of his career after beating Glover Texeira for the belt, and returned arguably a little quickly to face Pereira and save a big card.
Jamahal Hill details controversial incident at UFC 300
What irks Hill about his fight with Pereira is the finishing sequence, in which he feels the champion used an awkward moment with referee Herb Dean in order to cut the distance off. This led to him landing a vicious knockout and retaining the belt.
After Hill landed what appeared to be a low blow, Dean began to step in and cause a temporary halt to proceedings. But in a rare move, he accepted Pereira’s insistence that it was fine and they should continue, at which point the former champion reckons he lost his composure and allowed his rival in.
“You really set up a punch you couldn’t get to without a weird confusing moment and did some weak s***,” Hill said in an Instagram post earlier this year. “But it’s ok because you will fight me again and my eyes won’t leave you until you’re as stiff as Izzy left you in Miami.”
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