UFC 300 News: Jamahal Hill Reacts to ‘Unreal Expectations’ Aimed at Dana White
Jamahal Hill has heard all of your complaints.
Less than two months out, the UFC has finally found their headliner for their stacked UFC 300 event on Apr. 13. Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Hill heads into his second title fight ever against current king Alex Pereira.
After winning the vacant title from Glover Teixeira at UFC 283, Hill later relinquished the championship in July due to a ruptured Achilles injury and hasn't fought since.
The UFC 300 main event announcement of Pereira vs. Hill has been met with much backlash. The light heavyweight title might be up for grabs, but it seems as though the fans were itching for a massive Conor McGregor comeback story, Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus du Plessis or something else entirely.
The addition of 'Sweet Dreams' puts those fantasy fights to bed.
"You finally got the answer for who will be headlining UFC 300 and it will be yours truly versus Alex Pereira," Hill said on his YouTube channel. "The reaction to this has been kind of a mix of things here and there and whatnot. It's been a lot of outrage, a lot of disappointment and things like that. To be honest, it's crazy to me. Cause for the most part, a lot of these people are the same. People have spent the better part of, I don't know, a year, however long, trying to call me a crybaby.
"But, it's crazy to see how a card can be stacked. The main card literally has a former champion or champion in every single fight and some even facing former champions in every single fight at the main card, each one of the prelims is worthy of being its own separate main event."
Check out how UFC 300 is shaping up below.
Despite a line-up that includes three title fights, the fanbase is left wanting even more. UFC CEO Dana White did claim that MMA fans 'couldn't handle the main event' for UFC 300, so it's not too much of a surprise if some people are underwhelmed with Hill vs. Pereira.
Hill defends White against all of the 'unreal expectations' thrown at him and the company for their upcoming event.
"And people are crying like.. let's really be real. It's really crying because you had unreal expectations for something," Hill went on. "Now granted, I think Dana will, may have, well, he did overstep with some of the comments that he made. But, he had every intention on delivering on those comments.
"As anybody who's followed the UFC for some time, whenever Dana tries to tell you he's trying to deliver something, he wouldn't talk like that if he wasn't trying to deliver like something that you people would feel is mind-blowing or other worldly."
The former champ doesn't really understand the outcry, especially given the fact his fight vs. Pereira could be what you call a 'striker's delight'.
"But instead, you got one of the most technical guaranteed banger of a fights that you could ask for at this time with serious title implications. Historically, one of the best weight divisions in the UFC people are complaining.
"It's funny though, I think I seen one comment. It said, 'I was expecting Conor [McGregor] versus Jesus himself,'" Hill said with a laugh. "At this point. Now I'm convinced that wouldn't have been enough. Like y'all could've got Mario vs. King Kong. Y'all could've got Wolverine vs. Iron Man. You could've gotten anything. Hulk vs. Superman, Spider-Man vs. Batman. You coulda got any of this, and you wouldn't have been [happy]."
Hill continued.
"Far as the whole, all this, the disappointment and not being worthy this spot and things like that is, that's crazy. Whenever you pay for a fight, do you not want somebody who's coming to take somebody's head off, to knock somebody out?
"That has very high level skills and the capability of doing so. You got that on both ends in this fight. Coming forward, I'm putting it all on the line. I'm taking risk and I'm giving everything for the show. And for the disrespect to flood in the way that it is about a fight that a lot of people have asked for..."
While Hill vs. Pereira might not have been the absolute best option to choose from the bunch, the UFC veteran still believes it surpasses that of UFC 200's main and co-main events, being Amanda Nunes vs. Miesha Tate and Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Hunt.
"I say me and Alex are are leaps and bounds [better than UFC 200] in terms of show, skill and everything else that you get with those fights," Hill added. "In terms of that. As far as that goes, people gonna say whatever they wanna say, I already know how my fights are and how my fights affect people. Whenever I step in that cage, y'all will be watching. It will be entertaining and it's gonna be action.
"You already know how I'm coming every single fight and it's must see TV. Same with Alex Pereira. We both have put it on the line. We've shown y'all who we are through blood, sweat, and tears and have true belief that the true fans, which I believe that pool runs very, very deep in the community. They will lock in and they know exactly what they getting in this fight."
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