“I wanted that for a long time,” Jamahal Hill reveals why he wanted to challenge ‘special athlete’ Jiri Prochazka before Achilles injury

Jamahal Hill talks about always wanting to take on 'special athlete' Jiri Prochazka for a fight in the light heavyweight division.

“I wanted that for a long time,” Jamahal Hill reveals why he wanted to challenge ‘special athlete’ Jiri Prochazka before Achilles injury

Jamahal Hill on Jiri Prochazka (Via IMAGO)

Jamahal Hill is getting ready to fight light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira at UFC 300. However, he had something interesting to say about Pereira’s title fight opponent Jiri Prochazka. Hill revealed that he wanted to fight Jiri Prochazka before he ruptured his achilles and had to give up the light heavyweight title. Here is what happened:

Jamahal Hill recently sat down with Anthony Smith for ESPN MMA ahead of his fight at UFC 300. Hill mentioned wanting to fight Prochazka and stated his reasons for wanting to do so. Hill said: “Yeah, I wanted that one for a long time. I wanted that one from the time he came in just because of the challenge he is. Who he is, the uniqueness, and just he’s a special athlete.”

Hill described Prochazka as a special athlete and a special fighter. He said he was here to fight the best and test himself against the best. He said he wants variety in his matchups and wants to face top-tier talents from all spheres. Hill wants this so that by the end of his career, he feels satisfied.

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Jiri Prochazka has picked Jamahal Hill to win against Alex Pereira at UFC 300. Prochazka lost the light heavyweight title fight last year to Pereira at UFC 295. He believes Hill has the skills required to beat the champion in his arsenal. Prochazka got knocked down in the second round but he believes he was outperforming Pereira throughout the fight.

Alex Pereira wants UFC 301 fight after fighting Jamahal Hill at UFC 300

Alex Pereira hopped from the middleweight division to the light heavyweight division to quickly climb the ladder and become the division champion. However, ‘Poatan’ wants to do something even wilder this year. Alex Pereira wants to hop directly into UFC 301 to fight in front of his home crowd in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Based on how the fight against Hill turns out, Pereira might just hop onto the fight card in May after UFC 300 in April.

Alex Pereira's UFC 301 turnaround clause
Alex Pereira’s UFC 301 turnaround clause (via MMA Fighting/Black Belt Magazine)

Pereira talked about this in one of his recent interviews with Shak MMA on YouTube. He talked about the likelihood of him going for UFC 301 and why he may be able to pull it off as the light-heavyweight champion. Being translated by his coach, Pereira said: “And if he leaves really healthy and he says look I wanna fight over there, it’s hard for them to say no…I think with everything that’s going on right now he is able to call the shots.”

Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill were supposed to initially headline the fight at UFC 301. That would have been perfect for Pereira since he wanted to perform in front of his home crowd. But since he is headlining the UFC 300 fight card this month, he would have to come out of fighting the former light-heavyweight champion relatively unscathed and make a return just 21 days following the mega event.

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