Jamahal Hill will not be making the same mistakes again.
Hill headlines UFC Vegas 59 this weekend in a light heavyweight encounter against divisional veteran and former title challenger Thiago Santos.
It’s the biggest fight of Hill’s career where a win would undoubtedly be his most impressive thus far and also catapult him up the rankings.
Of course, the only blemish of Hill’s professional career came when he suffered a TKO defeat to Paul Craig back in June 2021 where he suffered a nasty arm injury that ultimately led to his first-ever loss.
In a recent interview, Hill revealed he went into the fight with no real game plan and plenty of arrogance which cost him in the end.
“I’m staying within myself. Check myself, make sure I’m approaching the game, the fight the right way,” Hill told DC and RC. “The Paul Craig fight was just arrogance, man. I felt like I could go in there with one of the best dudes in the world and beat him with no true game plan or really how to do that. Just, ‘oh, I’m better.’
“You can’t be that way in this game, you got to respect the game and that’s what I’ve done.”
Jamahal Hill To Fight With Fire Against Thiago Santos
Since that setback, Hill has earned back-to-back first-round knockout wins, including a memorable victory against Johnny Walker.
And while Santos is not the same fighter he was a couple of years ago, the Brazilian still remains a huge knockout threat. So what will Hill do when he’s opposite “Marreta” this weekend?
“Just doing what I do,” Hill said when asked how he would approach Santos. “This is what I do. I get in the pocket and I land, I land my shots, I deal with what’s coming at me. And I just stay on you. I don’t pressure, I want to be all over him. I want him to feel uncomfortable, I want him to feel panic.
“You gonna have to get into that fire. You got to present fire with fire and I feel I have plenty of fire to back it up.”
You can watch the full interview below:
