UFC light heavyweight contender Jamahal Hill revealed that the UFC was in a real rush to book him for the vacant title at UFC 283 against Glover Teixeira.
Teixeira was initially set to face Jiri Prochazka at UFC 282 but opted to sit it out once Jiri got injured.
In the cage, Ankalaev received the news of a split draw and was dismayed. He went on to say:
“ if I’m losing the wrestling, I’ll stand up. I can do both things, but I don’t know if I’m going to fight for this organization again, because honestly, I don’t know what just happened.”
Apparently this was enough for UFC to pass on another Ankalaev 5 rounder and instead pull Jamahal Hill from his headliner against Anthony Smith to the main event of UFC 283.
To put things in perspective, Hill isn’t even in the UFC 4 game – that’s how much respect he was getting from the brass upto that Ankalaev diss.
UFC president Dana White announced it during UFC 282 post-event press conference.
“We’ll do Glover [Teixeira] vs Jamahal Hill in Brazil.” White said.
During a talk with MMA Underground, Jamahal Hill recalled when the UFC approached him almost immediately to offer him a title opportunity against Teixeira.
“They called me before they even left the cage. By the time Magomed [Ankalaev] was walking up the aisle, I had already agreed.” Hill said.
Hill and Teixeira have verbally agreed to the match but haven’t signed the contract yet. “Sweet Dreams” explained how he is going to be super ready to face Teixeira.
“You need to be ready physically, mentally, and I gotta be sharp. I gotta be at the top of my game like I never have been. Yeah, it’s gonna take everything. It’s gonna take everything to come in and beat him. I don’t care about his age or none of that he’s already shown what that means, absolutely nothing. And he’s game, bro, he’s a champion – a true champion. So I gotta go and do what I gotta do.” Hill said.
Jamahal Hill joined the UFC back in 2020 through Dana White’s Contender Series. The 31-year-old only has one loss against Paul Craig in 2021. Currently, Hill is on his 3rd win streak after defeating 3 opponents with all of them ended via knockout. The last one was Thiago Santos when they competed at UFC Vegas 59 back in August.