UFC 300: Jamahal Hill Wanted ‘Better Reset’ before Alex Pereira’s ‘Gritty, Competitive Move'
Hill also insists 'it wasn't a groin strike' that he hit Pereira with prior to the fight-ending sequence.
Jamahal Hill says he and referee Herb Dean could have done things 'differently' at UFC 300.
The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion's return to the Octagon was cut short when he crossed paths with current champ Alex Pereira. It was a long time coming for Hill, who hadn't fought since his title win over Glover Teixeira at UFC 283.
RELATED: UFC 300: Jamahal Hill Rejects Idea of ‘Tune-up Fight’, Gets Real on Alex Pereira
Hill never lost the title to anyone, choosing to relinquish the championship after suffering an injury. Off the mend, Hill was given an immediate title shot in the UFC 300 headliner where he'd ultimately fall to Pereira's power punches in minutes.
There's no arguments to be made around the TKO stoppage, but there is some controversy on why the fight wasn't halted after an apparent low blow to Pereira from Hill. Referee Herb Dean was going to pause the action, but the champion decided against it, proceeding to put down Hill with the first shot he threw.
In the aftermath of UFC 300, Hill reflects on the fight-costing sequence and how it could have been all avoided.
"It's protect yourself at all times. But, right after they tell you that it's 'obey my commands at all times', too," Hill told The Schmo. "In the moment, whenever it happened, I stopped, [Dean] said stop before he interjected. I stopped. And you can see Alex continues to close the distance on me. I understand it was a cold moment, he got hit in the nuts... he pushed it off and then he came, it wasn't a groin strike.
"And him closing the angle on me while I'm trying to check and make sure he is good and things like that... it was a gritty, competitive move. I should have peeped it, caught onto and protected myself against. But, if Herb Dean could've done anything, I would've liked to have had a more clean and better reset. I think that that would've been, that would've been one thing I would've liked to see differently."
Like the affected Hill, former two-division champion Daniel Cormier weighed in on the controversy, citing a "fresh restart" should have taken place after Hill's punt to Pereira.
“I saw some things a little differently after watching it with (Hill),” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. "He spoke about foot placement as a southpaw fighting a conventional fighter, the range, and everything else. I run it by my cousins and my nephews, and my nephew had the same idea. They thought that Herb Dean made a mistake. While we are all lost in the idea of Herb goes to step in, Alex puts his hand out, Herb steps back...
“When you have an illegal strike, they are saying that they should have been separated and then they come back together as a fresh restart. It didn’t happen. Very short time later, Alex landed the shot that put Jamahal down and knocked him out, seconds after what should have been a restart.”
That's one way Herb Dean could have handled the exchange between the light heavyweights. As for Hill, he has "no excuse" for his UFC 300 loss, but finds it interesting that "a ref will give your opponent the control of the octagon like that."
"It makes me kind of think before I just straight up, just disengage and disobey a ref's command like that if I'm being honest," Hill added. "I ain't trying to make no excuse or anything, but if there's one thing that I look back on the fight that I would've done differently, it would've been kind of more so disregard that command has stayed on and stayed on my fighting, on my angles.
"Cause the only time, the angles, even the steps that I took were in that moment where I was expecting a little bit of a break. He stepped behind me, so he wasn't exactly in my line of sight when he gave the go ahead signal. I did hear the fight, but it was a little late. If you hear it in the video, people got a little loud and things like that. As far from Herb Dean, I would've liked to separate from me. I need to recognize the situation quick, bang and defend myself."
Jamahal Hill is wasting no time following the knockout loss. "Sweet Dreams" has already booked his bounce-back fight against Khalil Rountree Jr. in the UFC 303 co-main event. Hill hopes a win there will land him back in title contention, where a rematch with Alex Pereira awaits.
"Honestly, for me now, it's not even about the gold strap. It's about getting back to that fight. I wanna fight with Alex again just because of the narrative surrounding it and everything. I know what I was feeling in there and I know what type of time it's really on whenever we step in there again. So, I just wanna get to that fight. That's the fight that I really want," Hill said.
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