A big light heavyweight matchup is on the docket for Southern California on the first UFC pay-per-view event of 2025.
Former champions Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka will square off at UFC 311, which takes place Jan. 18 at Inuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.
The matchup was announced during the UFC Fight Night 248 post-fight show Saturday, and by Prochazka (30-5-1 MMA, 4-2 UFC).
Hill (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) rose to championship status in January 2023 to win the promotion’s light heavyweight title when he defeated Glover Teixeira at UFC 283. However, he suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in a UFC fighter pickup basketball game that caused him to vacate the title. At UFC 300 in April, Hill returned vs. champion Alex Pereira and was knocked out in the first round. He was then scheduled to fight Carlos Ulberg at UFC 303 in June but suffered a knee injury.
Prochazka aims to bounce back from a head kick knockout loss to Pereira at UFC 303 in June. Prior to that, he defeated Aleksandar Rakic by TKO at UFC 300. Prochazka has only lost to Pereira in his UFC tenure, also having been TKO’d by “Poatan” at UFC 295 in November 2023.
With the addition, the UFC 311 lineup includes:
- Jamahal Hill vs. Jiri Prochazka
- Jailton Almeida vs. Serghei Spivac
- Grant Dawson vs. Diego Ferreira
- Muin Gafurov vs. Rinya Nakamura
- Bogdan Guskov vs. Johnny Walker
- Ailin Perez vs. Karol Rosa
- Sedriques Dumas vs. Zach Reese
- Raoni Barcelos vs. Payton Talbott
- Bernardo Sopaj vs. Ricky Turcios
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.
