Jamahal Hill reflected on his disappointing defeat against Alex Pereira.
On April 13, ‘Sweet Dreams’ dared to be great when he attempted to dethrone Pereira of the middleweight throne. Unfortunately for him, ‘Poatan’ extended his legendary UFC run by knocking out Hill in round one to quickly end the UFC 300 main event.
Last week, Hill released a video on his YouTube channel reacting to the second loss of his professional MMA career. The 32-year-old started by focusing on the positives and explaining the success he found before Pereira closed the show:
“My thoughts on the fight were, how I felt in the fight, I felt good in the fight, heading into the fight. I felt that in the fight I was doing good things. I was moving around, I felt I controlled the distance, I was controlling the position, I was controlling all the things working through my game plan. Everything was working fine. I was able to find really good lead leg kicks that were able to hit the calf, inside leg kicks. I was finding the teep to the body, finding my roundhouse. I was able to find straight shots to the body, able to come over the top with the right hand, able to find that at one point. I felt like I was opening up and starting to find all my strikes and my tools.”
Daniel Cormier sparked minor controversy about the fight-ending sequence, which featured Pereira pushing referee Herb Dean aside before securing the knockout moments later. Hill responded to the situation by saying:
“I’m just going to say protect yourself at all times. My feelings on it just don’t matter just for the simple fact that a lot of people didn’t like how I sold the fight. They didn’t like the buildup to the fight. They don’t like me personally. It’s irrelevant. I just take it as a lesson learned and just grow from it from there. Just understand that it’s protect yourself at all times.”
Watch the fight-ending sequence between Pereira and Hill below:
hill vs pereira pic.twitter.com/fGSWLDMkS3
— YRG tonio⚡️ (@thinkerleft_) April 15, 2024
Jamahal Hill claims he ‘took no damage’ in knockout loss against Alex Pereira
On June 29, Jamahal Hill will make a quicker-than-expected turnaround when he fights Khalil Rountree Jr at UFC 303. There were concerns from the MMA community about Hill potentially returning too soon after getting knocked out. ‘Sweet Dreams’ shut those people down by claiming he took minimal damage at UFC 300:
“I took no damage. Most of the fall was me falling down. I remember everything. I remember looking up seeing his legs. I remember him coming in, trying to block, trying to reach for the underhook. He was able to land some shots and kind of throw my equilibrium off on the other side, but I was coherent the whole time throughout and through for the most part.”
During the previously mentioned YouTube video, Hill had this to say about moving on from UFC 300 and focusing on his fight at UFC 303:
“We are moving forward. I’m going to go put it on this next guy, Khalil Rountree. He’s going to have to feel it. He’s going to have to feel everything, the frustrations, and whatever I feel from what happened last weekend. I’m right back at it.”
Jamahal Hill plans to get back on track by taking out Khalil Rountree Jr. It’ll be easier said than done for the former UFC champion, as Rountree is riding a five-fight win streak, four by KO/TKO. ‘The War Horse’ last fought in December 2023, defeating Anthony Smith in round three of the UFC Vegas 83 main event.
Watch Hill’s entire YouTube video below:
