Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill, UFC 300 press convention Credit score: Gabriel Gonzalez/Cageside Press
Two UFC gentle heavyweight champions – one present, one former – almost obtained within the cage on the promotion’s Efficiency Institute in Las Vegas on Thursday.
Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill definitely have a historical past, with Pereira, the promotion’s present 205lb king, knocking Hill out in the principle occasion of the historic UFC 300 again in April. The battle was Hill’s first in over a 12 months, due to an harm that noticed him vacate the sunshine heavyweight title.
A really totally different, non-title battle nearly ensued this week, nevertheless. The confrontation – it’s a stretch to name it an altercation, as no blows have been landed, and even thrown – passed off whereas each have been in coaching, and resulted in a pair of gloves being thrown. By UFC requirements, relatively tame, however an encounter that may whet followers’ appetites for a rematch.
The incident was caught on digital camera by Full Ship MMA.
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Each Pereira and Hill have now given their sides of the encounter.
“Well, things happen,” Pereira, talking with MMA Junkie, mentioned by way of an interpreter on the World MMA Awards. “This is the first time it’s happened to me, but I’m focused on myself, focused on my thing. Right now, he [Hill] should be worried about his next fight. He has a tough fight with Jiri [Prochazka].”
Hill went right into a for much longer rationalization on his Youtube channel.
“I was at the PI earlier. Alex was there,” Hill acknowledged, recapping the alternate. “I just finished working out. He was working out, and I went to go up and have a conversation, ask him what we on?”
“We don’t have to talk across Twitter because I’m right here,” he continued. “Initially, when I went up to him, it was smooth, ‘Don’t run to heavyweight, and I’m going to go ahead and handle business, and then we need to run it back.’ And in the middle of the exchange, he said something to his translator, and his translator said ‘he said you’re still sleeping, woke up and sh*t.’ I’m wide awake now. You can get put to sleep for real. Then it kind of went to a whole fake ass, ‘yeah, come get the gloves and go in the cage.’”
Hill would go on to query the necessity for gloves to fight Alex Pereira when the pair weren’t getting paid to battle. “What the f*ck we need gloves for? We’re not getting paid right now.”
“I get paid to put on gloves and fight. When I’m out in a situation like that, we could throw hands right now. I’m not finna wait, take time, put no gloves on or none of that sh*t. We can just throw hands right now, and his response was just to stand there. So f*ck it, we’re going to get paid. I’m not going to ruin my bread, because here’s the thing, right: If I just reached over and hit him there and we started fighting right there, I possibly lose out on my next fight, and any opportunities I have left— restrictions now at the PI and all these other things.”
Hill, as famous, has a battle booked with Jiri Prochazka at UFC 311 subsequent month. Alex Pereira, who stayed busy in 2024 with three high-profile victories, doesn’t. Magomed Ankalaev, nevertheless, is most certainly subsequent for “Poatan.”
