Jamahal Hill hopes he can usher in an era of stability in the UFC light heavyweight division by claiming the vacant title against Glover Teixeira at UFC 283.
Originally scheduled to fight Anthony Smith in March, Hill (11-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) was thrust into a championship contest against Teixeira next month after Saturday’s vacant title clash between Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 282 ended in a split draw.
It’s an opportunity Hill didn’t expect or see coming, but when it arose, he fully embraced it.
“I think they were still in the cage when they called me,” Hill told MMA Junkie on Monday. “One hundred percent, it was an immediate yes. I knew they had to do something. I sent a tweet talking about Anthony Smith and me for the title right after, jokingly, obviously, but still – I wasn’t surprised.
“I actually kind of like it like this. It’s perfect time. If I had my choice, I would’ve liked maybe a couple more weeks. But it is what it is.”
Hill put himself in position to get the fight with three consecutive knockout wins over Thiago Santos, Johnny Walker and Jimmy Crute. He’s shown to be a brutal hitter in the octagon, and on paper, many might think his best chance of winning is to keep it on the feet and put Teixeira’s lights out.
If anyone thinks that’s his only path to victory, however, Hill said a rude awakening is on the horizon. He knows Teixeira is a problem on the ground since he holds the UFC record for most submission wins in the history of the division. But Hill made it clear he’s not outclassed in any area.
“I see it like everybody else does: He has the same mindset that all y’all have – he just has to get me down and he wins a world championship,” Hill said. “I’m not here to convince nobody of nothing. It’s just my job to prove that sh*t wrong. … I’m itching for the challenge. I want to see if his game is really like that. People feel like I’m the only one that’s going to be tested, that I’m the only one that’s in for a test. Hopefully he comes in the same way.
“The plan is to knock anybody out. I like knockouts. But do I think like, ‘Oh my God, I have to knock him out. That’s how I win. The only way I win is if I knock him out’? F*ck no. I can win a fight every single way there is to win a fight, whether it be in the clinch, whether it be on the ground or whether it be just beating him the f*ck up.”
Fighting for a UFC title for the first time is a special moment in any fighter’s career. For Hill, though, it will be particularly unique. UFC 283, which takes place Jan. 21 and airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+, takes place at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro and marks the promotion’s first even in Brazil since March 2020.
The Brazilian fans are known for their hostility toward foreign fighters, and while that might be intimidating to some athletes, Hill is relishing it.
“That’s something to enjoy,” Hill said. “That’s an atmosphere and a feeling that most people will never experience. Most people will never experience that: a title fight, in Brazil, against a hometown Brazilian – all of that. People will never experience that. I’m just going to enjoy it. I’m going to enjoy it all.”
After the UFC failed to crown a new light heavyweight champion at UFC 282, there’s hope across the sport that UFC 283 can be the start of a new chapter in what was once the organization’s glamour division.
After Jon Jones vacated the title to make his still-awaited move to heavyweight nearly three years ago, there has been little consistency. Dominick Reyes seemed like he was going to be the next man, but then he got knocked out by a late-30s Blachowicz. Then Israel Adesanya failed in his bid to overtake the division before Blachowicz was submitted by a 40-year-old Glover Teixeira.
It seemed like Jiri Prochazka might be the guy after he won a Fight of the Year contender with Teixeira to claim the strap in July, but then he suffered a bad shoulder injury that will put him out for more than a year.
It’s easy to see the criticism of the UFC 283 already coming down the pipeline. Critics will say Hill or Teixeira aren’t the real champion because they didn’t dethrone Prochazka, but Hill isn’t buying into that narrative.
“Why wouldn’t I feel like I’m the true champion?” Hill said. “Right now, the man who won that belt, the level that he was at to win that belt, he can’t be at that level right now. So to sit there and be like, ‘He’s the true champion’ – he’s not at that level right now. He’s hurt. Let him heal, let him regain that level, then we’ll test that level. But as of right now he made a decision to take himself out and allow a new champion to be crowned. If I’m that new champion, why the f*ck wouldn’t I feel like the champion?”
If Hill is the man to emerge victorious from UFC 283, he said he hopes to bring the darker days of this division to an end. There’s already a queue of potential challengers ahead, from Blachowicz to Ankalaev to Prochazka and more. Hill wants to be a longstanding champion, and his chance to start that journey is a little more than one month away.
“That’s the goal,” Hill said. “That’s the plan. All I can do is just work, just go out there and see and try to make that a reality. I focus on the things that I can control, and it turns out that’s one of the things I can control.”
