Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka were both on the receiving ends of two of the most memorable knockouts of 2024 at the hands and feet of UFC light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira, although Hill feels his was more acceptable.
The former UFC light heavyweight titleholders face each other at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 in Los Angeles. Prochazka, who was knocked out by Pereira with a brutal head kick at UFC 303 in June, recently took exception to Hill — who was stopped in the first round by “Poatan” at UFC 300 — criticizing his performance.
Shortly after, Hill responded to Prochazka by playing the knockout loss comparison game.
“Bro, are you kidding me?,” Hill said on his YouTube channel. “So we had the same opponent on our last [fights], right? You can say whatever, try to go with the wave because that seems to be the thing now because I get a lot of hate within the community and all of that. A lot of y’all want to try and jock on that, but you know I really don’t care and I’m really going to come at you.
“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. ... My man literally had your ponytail to the left. I hope you wear that same ponytail in L.A., so I can lean that motherf*cker to the left right back for you. This is insane. We’re talking about a dude who was getting his ass whooped in every fight that you’ve been in. ... You can take a lot of shots, and because people get tired, they make low IQ moves.”
Both men captured UFC gold with victories over Pereira’s coach and mentor Glover Teixeira, but neither was able to defend due to injury. Prochazka got two other chances to win the title, and was stopped by Pereira in both, while Hill also fell short in his bid to regain.
Although their stories are similar on paper, Hill warns Prochazka that at the UFC’s first pay-per-view of 2025, he will prove they’re far apart in skill.
“You want to talk about performances, talk about my last one, we can go into every performance: I put on dominating performances, you survive and get a win,” Hill said. “We’re not the same. On Jan. 18 in L.A., I’m going to show you we’re not the same.”
