Hill climb to glory
Adesanya’s mate vows to silence brash Brazilian rival
Jamahal Hill has laughed off footage purporting to show UFC 300 rival Alex Pereira smashing the company’s famed punch record, while tipping himself and Israel Adesanya to reclaim their UFC world titles via knockout.
Some nine months after disappearing to deal with a ruptured achilles tendon, Hill is not only back, or headlining UFC 300, but promising to “dominantly” reclaim the light heavyweight title he was forced to give up due to inactivity.
Speaking with Fox Sports, the 32-year-old Michigan fighter is backing his mate Adesanya to reclaim the UFC middleweight crown if, as expected, he squares off with champion Dricus du Plessis at
UFC 305 in Perth. His comments come as Pereira ignited social media with the release of an Instagram video which appeared to show him breaking Francis Ngannou’s famed punch record.
Six years ago when throwing into the UFC Performance Institute’s Powerkube machine, Ngannou recorded a score of 129,161 – which UFC boss Dana White likened to being struck by a Ford Escort.
In footage released on Wednesday in Las Vegas, Pereira is shown smashing that score with a mark of 191,796. The video was being shared around X, only moments before Hill sat down for a one-on-one interview with Fox Sports.
Shown the footage, the former champion simply cackled and said “OK”.
Pushed on if he had any specific thoughts, or even if he wanted to bite on it being real or not, Hill simply shook his head before promising to not only defeat Pereira, but also take all the hype he had built winning titles in two divisions.
“That’s why I think it’s great,” Hill said of the growing fanfare surrounding the Brazilian, who also beat Adesanya for the UFC middleweight title two years ago.
“I love it. It’s something for me to take from him and build off of. I think this fight plays out with me winning dominantly.”
Earlier this week, it was revealed that in preparation for his showdown with Pereira, Hill has spoken with Adesanya – who has himself fought the Brazilian four times, twice in kickboxing and twice in
MMA. While Adesanya is 1-3 in those fights, he did ice Pereira in their most recent outing at UFC 287 and thinks ‘Poatan’ is hittable.
Hill described the conversation as “valuable” before then backing his friend to reclaim the gold strap he lost to American Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in Sydney.
Discussions are already under way for Perth’s UFC 305 card to be topped by a title fight between Adesanya and UFC middleweight champ Du Plessis.
Asked for a prediction, Hill said: “I think Izzy knocks him out”.
He then suggested Du Plessis was set to pay for his ongoing verbal war with Adesanya.
Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the new exclusive home of UFC Pay-per-view