Demetrious Johnson believes Jamahal Hill has what it takes to knock out Alex Pereira at UFC 300.
On Saturday, April 13, ‘Sweet Dreams’ will return to the Octagon a mere nine months removed from a rupturing his Achilles while participating in a charity basketball game. Forced to surrender the 205-pound crown as a result, Hill is ready to reclaim the title he never lost.
Sharing his taking on the highly anticipated headliner, former UFC and current ONE flyweight world champion Demetrious Johnson sets the stage and breaks down what he expects to be one of the most intriguing fights of 2024.
“Jamahal Hill is coming off a major surgery — Achilles tendon surgery,” Johnson began while speaking on his YouTube channel. “He ended up rupturing his Achilles tendon surgery and had to vacate the belt. Since he vacated the belt, a new champion has come to the helm which is Alex Pereira. Now, we’ve had Jamahal Hill on the Mightycast and he said he’s going to knock out Pereira.”
Assessing Jamahal Hill’s top attributes, ‘Mighty Mouse’ rewatched the ex-champion’s vicious first-round knockout of Johnny Walker at a February 2022 Fight Night event in Las Vegas.
Demetrious Johnson Breaks Down What Jamahal Hill Needs to Avoid If He Wants to Leave UFC 300 with Gold
Examining Hill’s best path to victory against the former GLORY Kickboxing champion, ‘Mighty Mouse’ believes it all comes down to avoiding Pereira’s crushing leg kicks and preventing the defending champ from coaxing him into a prime position for counterstriking.
“Can Jamahal Hill stop the leg kicks and not allow Alex Pereira to turn him? Go back and watch the Sean Strickland fight,” Johnson said. “Strickland did a good job of crossing the void and getting to Alex, but Alex would never let him get to him fully because Alex would turn him on a nice tight angle, going to the body and going to the head, inside leg kick.”
6-1 under the UFC banner, Jamahal Hill has already made his mark, becoming the first Dana White’s Contender Series alum to become a world champion. In his title-winning performance against Glover Teixeira, he scored the second-highest significant strike differential in UFC championship history, the second-most strikes landed in a title fight, and the most significant strikes landed in a light heavyweight title bout.
On his journey to the title, he dispatched four of his opponents inside the Octagon via KO, including wins over OSP, Jimmy Crute, and Thiago Santos.
“I know Jamahal is gonna try to knock him out because he said he was gonna do it,” Johnson added. “Can he do it? Absolutely. They’re both big men, they both hit extremely hard, but he’s got to make sure that if he’s gonna do it, he’s gotta make sure that he doesn’t get dropped as well.”
