As UFC 300 draws near, questions regarding Jamahal Hill and his surgically repaired Achilles continue to loom large.
In July, the former light heavyweight champion was forced to vacate his title after suffering a ruptured Achilles during a charity basketball game. Typically, an injury of that magnitude takes a year, if not longer, to fully recover. Instead, ‘Sweet Dreams’ will step back inside the Octagon after nine months, leaving many pundits uneasy.
Scheduled to call the action on April 13, UFC play-by-play man Jon Anik shared his own concerns over Hill’s broken wheel, but still fully expects the Chicago native to “go for it” come fight night.
“Jamahal Hill is going to go for it, whether it’s on one Achilles or two,” Anik said in an interview with Kevin Iole. “He’s going to try to knock Alex Pereira out and Pereira might be actively the biggest star in the sport right now, with respect to Conor McGregor and everybody else.
“I don’t think Jamahal Hill is going to have the crowd. I don’t think people quite understand the magnitude and star power of ‘Poatan’ right now, but you can be sure in the fighter meeting, my first question for Hill is going to be about that wheel and we’ll see how it holds up.”
Hill’s clash with ‘Poatan’ will be his first since delivering a title-winning performance against Glover Teixeira at UFC 283. ‘Sweet Dreams’ took that fight on relatively short notice, but that didn’t stop him from putting on a dominant performance against the Brazilian legend over the course of their 25-minute affair.
“I think Jamahal Hill, certainly on the merits of what he did to Glover Teixeira and the manor in which he was forced to vacate the throne, deserves this championship opportunity and we’ll see what he can do with it,” Anik said. ‘And it’s not to suggest that he doesn’t have that 25-minute dog within him if he has to dig deep and maybe fight through some scar tissue and pain on that Achilles, but I do think the matchup is such that even if he was at 100% and in an active competition cycle, he might just go for it early against Alex Pereira.
“It’s a fascinating main event. I’m glad that these guys are getting the opportunity to headline and imagine if Jamahal Hill does it. I think the betting line speaks to how close the fight is. So many people wondering out loud, ‘How is Hill going to do this?’ Even me at 10+ months removed [from the injury]. He’s a +110 underdog. It’s not like he’s +200.”
Jon Anik Weighs in on Alex Pereira’s Proposed Move to Heavyweight Once He Takes Care of Business with Jamahal Hill
When Alex Pereira steps into the main event spotlight at UFC 300, he’ll do so for the first time as the promotion’s light heavyweight champion. With him having already conquered the middleweight division, many are questioning whether or not we could see ‘Poatan’ make another move up to test his mettle at heavyweight — potentially becoming the UFC’s first-ever three-division champion.
Anik believes doing so could solidify Pereira’s status as the greatest MMA fighter of all time, but he does have some reservations about seeing ‘Poatan’ inside the Octagon with a monster like current interim heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall.
“He could go down as the greatest of all time. Not to suggest that he couldn’t realize that distinction if he sticks around for a while, but I think time is working against him, but it’s absolutely incredible what Pereira has accomplished. I didn’t realize the magnitude of his star power until I started showing up at some of these live events.
“As far as the heavyweight division, I think if there were an opportunity to not end that Adesanya series on a loss, he would willingly go back down to 185 just because he has the work ethic to do so. Yeah, I think he could realize some success as a heavyweight. I don’t know what his goals are. I think a lot of them are financial and certainly, baddest man on the planet, undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, but he’d give up a lot of size and there are things variably that I don’t love about him against somebody like Tom Aspinall who is the standard right now just given the fact that he’s competing.
“I’d like to see it, but I just don’t know that Pereira’s goals are rooted in that rather than just getting the biggest fattest possible purse, but we’ll see.”
Watch the full interview below:
