Jamahal
Hill is taking his UFC
300 knockout loss to Alex
Pereira in stride and is looking forward to his upcoming clash
with Khalil
Rountree at
UFC 303.
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The buildup to the bout saw Hill repeatedly call out those doubting
his ability to defeat Pereira, with things even getting heated
between the two competitors during the UFC 300 press conference.
Now, following a bitter loss to the reigning divisional champion,
Hill has no intentions of obsessing over the defeat and is eager to
get back in the win column.
“I mean, I’ve dealt with it by just moving forward,” Hill told
Middleasy . ”At the end of the day, fighting is what I
do, it’s not who I am. It’s not my entire life, you know? It’s just
benefitted other areas of my life in very significant ways. I’ve
just got to focus on that and understand that this isn’t the end of
the road for me. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, it’s unfortunate. Yeah, I
saw things going another different way, but it’s an opportunity for
me to meet adversity and challenge it and have other success with
it.”
The former UFC light heavyweight champion is slated to take on
Rountree at UFC 303 and is eager to earn his way back to a fight
with “Poatan.”
During the same interview, Hill also went on to give his take on
Pereira’s next potential clash against Magomed
Ankalaev. According to the
Dana White’s Contender Series graduate, Ankalaev has the tools
to dismantle the two-division champion.
“That’s part of the reason I wanted to come back so soon, I didn’t
want Magomed to get a hold of him [Alex] first,” said Hill. “Magomed’s stance is a problem for Pereira. Pereira doesn’t fight
well against southpaws, kind of like that whole sequence is pointed
to. He doesn’t take the angle and he doesn’t pursue. He doesn’t
fight against southpaws very well; Magomed’s a southpaw. Magomed
can can come with a very grapple-heavy approach, as well. He picks
decent shots and he is capable on the feet. So, yeah, I’d probably
favor Magomed.”