Bad Karma? Rampage Jackson Knew Alex Pereira Would KO Jamahal Hill after This UFC 300 Stunt
Jackson on Hill: "I knew it right there 'cause I felt like he's gonna have bad karma for that."
Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson was leaning towards Jamahal Hill to win the UFC 300 main event until something in particular changed his mind.
It started off as a respectful fight week between Hill and his opponent Alex Pereira with the light heavyweight fighters sharing a wholesome moment on media day with Pereira autographing a hoodie Hill asked him to sign. The next day, everything changed.
Hill made some noise at the UFC 300 press conference, bringing a bruised Easter Island head (Moai) on a chain onstage to symbolize what he was going to do to the stone-faced champion on Saturday night. On the microphone, Hill was bold in his prediction that he was going to dethrone Pereira.
Another former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion in Rampage Jackson believed Hill had a real chance of doing just that, but explains what made him change his tune on the title fight.
"To be honest, I was thinking this fight, Jamahal Hill, he's tough and he looks he knocked people out," Rampage recalled on The Jaxxon Podcast. "He looks like he's a tough fighter. I thought maybe he was more a well-rounded fighter than Alex. But then, when I saw him come out with that Easter Island thing on the chain, I was like, 'Oh, Alex gonna knock him out'. I knew it right there 'cause I felt like he's gonna have bad karma for that. I believe in karma."
Whether you're a big believer in karma or not, Pereira ended up sparking Hill inside the first round to defend his title by TKO.
"If I'd never seen Alex fight, I wouldn't think that he was a big puncher or had a power punch," Jackson said of Pereira. "But it looks like he hits hard and from his fights, like what he did to Jamahal Hill, that was like an up jab."
Jackson details his own experience with karma and how a 2003 fight against Wanderlei Silva in Pride reshaped his perspective on life.
"The first time I got my taste of karma is, I think the first time I fought Wanderlei. I made a joke, you know like to joke around and stuff, right? So, I did an interview in Japan and I told a joke that was really bad. I used to be really religious and I told like a joke that was kinda religious because I said something like, I used to believe that we didn't evolve from monkeys until I met Wanderlei.
"I got some bad karma," Jackson said of the joke. "This was really bad. I was really ashamed of myself for saying this joke... That was bad. I got bad karma. He knee'd me in the face like 15 times and I was like, bad karma!"
Circling back to Jamahal Hill, the one-time champion respondef to the backlash from his UFC 300 antics to promote the headliner.
"A lot of people didn’t like how I sold the fight," Hill said on his YouTube channel. "They didn’t like the build-up to the fight. They don’t like me personally. So, it’s irrelevant. I just take it as a lesson learned and just grow from it from there."
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