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To say that mixed martial arts fans were disappointed with the announcement of the UFC 300 main event would be an understatement.
After all, UFC CEO Dana White had promised a mind-blowing headliner, but instead, the revelation of the Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill feature was almost buried at the conclusion of last Saturday’s UFC 298 event.
While the main event might lack the “wow” factor that was expected, UFC 300 is nonetheless one of the deepest cards in recent memory. Hill, who will be making his return from a ruptured Achilles tendon, doesn’t understand the criticism.
“There’s been a lot of outrage, a lot of disappointment and things like that,” Hill said on his YouTube channel. “To be honest, it’s crazy to me because for the most part a lot of these people are the same people that have spent the better part of a year or however long calling me ‘cry baby,’ but it’s crazy to see how a card can be stacked—the main card literally has a former champion or champion in every single fight and some even facing former champions. In every single fight in the main card, each one of the prelims is worthy of being its own separate main event and people are crying. Like, let’s really be real. It’s really, really crying because you had unreal expectations for something.
“Now granted, I think Dana did overstep with some of the comments that he made, but he had every intention on delivering on those comments. As you know, anybody who’s followed the UFC for some time, whenever Dana tries to tell you he’s trying to deliver something, he wouldn’t talk like that if he wasn’t trying to deliver something that you people would feel is mind-blowing or otherworldly. Instead, you got one of the most technical, guaranteed banger of a fights that you could ask for at this time with serious implications in historically one of the best weight divisions in the UFC. And people are complaining.”
According to Hill, expectations were so high at one point that virtually nothing that was announced would have been satisfactory. He also claims that there were plenty of fans requesting that he fight Pereira at UFC 300 before the bout was confirmed.
“It’s funny though. I think I saw one comment that said, ‘I was expecting Conor vs. Jesus Himself,’ Hill said. “At this point, now I’m convinced that wouldn’t have been enough. Y’all could have got Mario vs. King Kong, y’all could have got Wolverine vs. Iron Man, you could have gotten anything, Hulk vs. Superman, Spider-Man vs. Batman, you could have got any of this and you wouldn’t have been happy. So all I can say as far as the whole ‘this is a disappointment’ and it not being worthy of this spot and things like that is that’s crazy.
“Whenever you pay for a fight, do you not want somebody who’s coming to take somebody’s head off? To knock somebody out that has very, very, very high-level skills and the capability of doing so. You’ve got that on both ends in this fight. I put it on the line every time. Every single fight, go and watch any fight, I’m coming forward, I’m putting it all on the line, I’m taking risks, and I’m giving everything for the show. For the disrespect to flood in the way that it is about a fight that a lot of people have asked for … I’m going to keep it a thousand, I was there, I did the fan experience in Anaheim. That’s all people were asking. That’s all people wanted. A lot of fans, a lot of true, true fans, that’s what they wanted. They wanted this for UFC 300.”
Hill will be making his first Octagon appearance since UFC 283 in January 2023, when he outdueled Glover Teixeira to claim the then-vacant light heavyweight title. Pereira has since captured 205-pound gold, and the fight comes with a built-in storyline, as Teixeira is the new champion’s mentor. For his part, Hill has no doubt that the fight will deliver.
Jamahal Hill Responds to Criticism of UFC 300 Headliner: 'It’s Crazy to Me'
To say that mixed martial arts fans were disappointed with the announcement of the UFC 300 main event would be an understatement.
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