Jamahal Hill is eager to run things back with UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira – whether it’s for the title or not.
Hill (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) was knocked out by Pereira (10-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) in April at UFC 300. He took umbrage with the fight-ending sequence, in which referee Herb Dean tried to pause the action after Hill struck Pereira with an accidental low blow. Pereira waved off Dean and landed the knockout blow just moments afterward.
Hill was lambasted for continuously expressing his discontent with the abrupt ending but wanted to address it one final time.
“I’m literally only saying this to say what happened, to point out from my point of view what happened and what it is,” Hill said on his YouTube channel. “The fact of this, ‘Oh, he can’t accept the loss, he needs to cope.’ The hardest thing that I ever had to eat in this game was whenever I lost my ‘0’ to Paul Craig.
“When I was sitting there and I was locked up in the submission and I realized I could not use my arm, and I’m like, ‘Oh sh*t, I’m about to lose.’ I literally remember that feeling. I remember it very vividly, and that was a very, very hard thing for me. I went out and partied with this man that night. I enjoyed life after that with that individual. Me taking a loss is not a problem for me at all. I’m simply saying what happened.”
Pereira defends his light heavyweight title in a rematch against Jiri Prochazka (30-4-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 303 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Before Pereira vs. Prochazka 2 was added, Hill was scheduled to face Carlos Ulberg in the UFC 303 co-main event, but the former champion withdrew due to a knee injury.
If Pereira loses his title to Prochazka, Hill wants his rematch with “Poatan.”
“Alex has got his own task ahead of him,” Hill said. “This weekend, he’s fighting Jiri Prochazka, defending the title. Best of luck to you in this rematch with Jiri because, if you lose, I don’t give a f*ck if they offer me a title shot. It’s me and you. You win, I’m going to go starch the next guy, and I’ll see you soon. You lose, I see you real soon.”
