Jamahal Hill Believes He May Be Waiting A While For A Contender

Newly crowned champion Jamahal Hill feels he might as well wait for Jiří Procházka in July if no other contenders are worthy.

Hill
Credit UFC on Instagram

Jamahal Hill explains why he thinks he might be waiting a while to defend his UFC title. 

UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil saw the crowning of a new UFC light heavyweight champion. Jamahal Hill defeated Glover Teixeira in the main event to claim his very first UFC championship. Now that Hill is standing alone at the top of the 205-pound division many are eager to find out who will be the first to challenge his reign. Immediately one name stood out, former champion Jiří Procházka gave up his title after suffering an injury which led to Hill getting the title shot in the first place. 

Hill knows that a showdown with Procházka is inevitable but the timeline is a bit unclear that this time. Procházka has stated that he may not be able to return until the summer. If that is the case, Hill has expressed that he might be willing to wait. 

Jamahal Hill thinks the best option is to wait until summer to face Procházka

Immediately following Hill’s win, Procházka sent him a video asking to be next. Hill responded in a video agreeing to the bout. Now Hill is defending his decision to wait until July to fight again, saying the lack of other contenders and his own health promote that timeline. He spoke about this on the Believe You Me Podcast. 

“I also have got the fracture to my nose, and things like that, and then to get the type of camp that I want, I think July is actually a pretty, pretty decent time personally,” he said. “Especially like right on top of the schedule that I’ve been having. You know, so I actually would be willing to wait for that. But, you know if another challenge pops up and I mean, and it’s ready to go and it is what it is, I’m down.”

Hill went on to say that he thinks the rest of the division needs to have more fights before earning a title shot. Before Hill fought Teixeira there was a title fight between Jan Błachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev that resulted in a draw. Neither of those two men deserves another shot in Hill’s opinion, so why not wait for the former champion? 

“So I think I might be stuck waiting anyway, the way that I figure it because a couple of fights are gonna have to play out first,” he said.

Hill seemed open to doing what the UFC wanted from him, but the lure of a fight during International Fight Week in Las Vegas was very appealing to him. If Procházka can be ready to go by then, usually the beginning of July, then that seems like the best option all around. 

Published on January 27, 2023 at 10:42 am
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