Jamahal Hill is primed and ready to score another upset and prove doubters wrong. This time on one of MMA’s all-time biggest stages ever.

It’s been over one full year since we last saw “Sweet Dreams” inside the octagon. When Hill won the light heavyweight title against Glover Teixeira via unanimous decision at UFC 283 in January 2023, he became the first Dana White’s Contender Series alum to hold UFC gold. Unfortunately, his reign was short-lived and halted by a torn achilles tendon that he suffered last July.

Hill’s vacating of the title prompted the promotion to book a clash of former light heavyweight and middleweight champions, Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira for UFC 294 this past October. Pereira came out on top as one of the few fighters to win titles in two different divisions when he TKO’d Prochazka in round two. Known for his incredible striking acumen, Pereira has been comfortably favored throughout the community as too much for the American in UFC 300’s main event this Saturday. However, the role of the underdog is being relished by Hill, to put it mildly.

“I’ve never been dominated in the striking game,” Hill told UFC.com. “I’ve been caught, I’ve had my s*** rocked, some people have had some moments, but nobody has ever dominated me in any facet of striking, ever, in my life. So for me to be having this fight now and to come in and that’s all this dude does — they say he’s the best striker in the world, possibly of all time. Hell yeah, I’m excited for that because I feel that’s a title I hold; that’s a level my name should ring on.

“Throughout the whole time I’ve been fighting, it’s grapplers; I’ve been fighting wrestlers. They can strike, but they would rather take me down.”

It’s been a nearly perfect 14-fight career for the 32-year-old Hill. Only twice has he not seen his hand raised. Even then, his first non-victory was initially a first-round TKO over Klidson Abreu until a positive marijuana test overturned it to a no-contest. One TKO over Ovince Saint Preux later and Hill got caught in the crafty guard of Paul Craig, who finished “Sweet Dreams” via TKO in two minutes at UFC 263 in June 2021. It’s been smooth sailing with four straight wins since, three of which came via knockout.

Ultimately, Hill feels he’s been tested by strikers with good grappling who have needed to resort to falling back on those ground methods after feeling his power. Despite Pereira’s improvements on the mat, Hill sees nowhere else this fight can go for the Brazilian champion.

“This dude don’t have that f****** option. He don’t have that option of ‘I’m gonna see if I can take him down.’ He grabs me, he’s f****** done! He grabs me, he’s done,” Hill said. “I’m not Jan [Blachowicz]. I’m not Jiri. I’m not one of these dudes that got you on the ground and laid on you. When I get you down, I get on top of you, I f*** you up, period.

“Only thing that he can do is strike with me. Shut up. Shut up, bro. He’s been pieced up before. We’ve seen him pieced up. We’ve seen him dominated. We’ve seen him knocked out. We’ve seen him rocked. We’ve seen your level. We’ve never seen my level. I’ve never even seen my peak level.”

Achilles tears have become more common in team sports in recent years, specifically in the NFL with players of various positions. It’s been a season-ender for all who suffer it, as it requires a six-month minimum of recovery time.

Coincidentally, Hill’s injury came while playing basketball rather than training or doing MMA-related activities. Due to the injury’s general severity, fans have wondered whether or not this return would be too soon, especially as it was put together somewhat sporadically with other UFC 300 main event options crumbling. The process was all taken care of properly, according to Hill.

“I had the best doctor, the best team available, the best medicine available to me, so even then, it was never ‘Oh my God — this is it for me,’” Hill said. “Everybody that I talked to told me, ‘You’ll be good. This not the same injury it was 10, 20 years ago.’ I just had a lot of things that were handled for me right away, so I didn’t have to worry about it; my mind was already shifted on the goal.

“The goal was to do everything right with recovery and make it back as soon as possible, in the best health that I could. That was the challenge; all that other s*** got pushed out of the way for me. It was just about doing the right things in recovery.

“When the injury happened, I was in a really good place mentally in my life, so it was devastating and it hurt — I had some things that I had to come to terms with — but I was in a good spot mentally, so I was able to come to terms with them really quick and focus on the goal,” he concluded.

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TOP STORIES

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Business. Endeavor, TKO buying back over $311 million worth of stock from Vince McMahon

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VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

UFC 300 Embedded 1.

A Blessed BMF Resume.

Full fights.

PFL Fight Week.

Advice from RJJ.

Gaethje’s Road to UFC 300.

Nickal hype.

Wonderboy talks “unstoppable” power.

Conor spars.

An Almighty diet.

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LISTEN UP

On To the Next One. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alex K. Lee discuss matches to make after UFC Vegas 90.

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MORNING MUSIC

More Warning always.

Go to Twitter, use the #MorningReport hashtag, or find one of my tweets with it, and drop me a jam you’re currently really into. I’ll pick the best one alongside my daily choice and give you a shoutout! You can also share in the comments below — those are just harder to sift through sometimes!

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Beefs.

Classic Jim.

Searching.

Team work.

Busted.

Lineup.

All thanks to the hair.

An all-time favorite.

The climb.

Both wonderful.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Reece McLaren (16-9) vs. Hu Yong (12-4); ONE Fight Night 22, May 4

Ihor Potieira (20-5) vs. Michel Pereira (30-11, 2 NC); UFC 301, May 4

Aspen Ladd (11-5) vs. Ekaterina Shakalova (8-1); Bellator Paris, May 17

Piera Rodríguez (9-1) vs. Ariane Carnelossi (14-3); UFC Vegas 92, May 18

Saori Oshima (13-4) vs. Aya Murakami (7-1); Deep Jewels 45, May 26

Sumudaerji (16-6) vs. Joshua Van (10-1); UFC 302, June 1

Andre Muniz (24-6) vs. Ikram Aliskerov (15-1); UFC Vegas 93, June 15

Andrei Arlovski (34-23) vs. Martin Buday (13-2); UFC Vegas 93, June 15

Muhammad Naimov (11-2) vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan (8-2); UFC Saudi Arabia, June 22

Viviane Araújo (12-6) vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius (10-3); UFC Fight Night, July 13

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FINAL THOUGHTS

The more Hill speaks, the more interested he gets me in his fight. Guy is confident. You love to see it.

Thanks for reading!

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EXIT POLL

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