Video: Hill Praises Pereira’s ‘Gritty’ UFC 300 Ref Block

Jamahal Hill is pleading his case.

UFC 300 has come and gone, and unfortunately for “Sweet Dreams,” he could not reclaim the Light Heavyweight title he briefly held in 2023. Despite his best efforts, Hill suffered a first round knockout loss (watch highlights) against the current champion, Alex Pereira, in the evening’s main event.

The finishing sequence was a wild way to conclude the historic event inside the T-Mobile Arena two weekends ago (April 13, 2024). Pereira was dealt a body kick from Hill that went low and connected with the cup, halting the action momentarily by referee, Herb Dean. When I say “momentarily,” I mean that as quickly as you can imagine. Pereira essentially waved off any breaks in the pace and connected with a clean left hook directly after that floored his foe. Hill, 32, admits the sequence threw him off when it happened.

“It’s protect yourself at all times,” Hill told The Schmo. “Right after they tell you that, it’s obey my commands at all times, too. In the moment whenever it happened, I stopped. He said, ‘Stop,’ before he interjected. I stopped, and you can see Alex continues to close the distance on me.

“I understand it’s a cool moment, ‘Oh, he got hit in the nuts and pushed off,’” he continued. “It wasn’t a groin strike, and him closing the angle on me while I’m trying to check and make sure he’s good, it was a gritty competitor move. I should have peeked, caught on to protecting myself. If Herb Dean could have done anything, I would have liked to have had a more clean and better reset.”

Hill is already set to try and rebound off his second career loss (12-2, 1 no contest). The former champion will face Khalil Rountree Jr. in UFC 303’s co-main event on June 29, 2024.