Jamahal Hill had high praise for rival Alex Pereira after UFC 303.
Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) notched his second title defense by knocking out Jiri Prochazka (30-5-1 MMA, 4-2 UFC) in their title-fight rematch this past Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Hill (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) is eager to run things back with Pereira after he suffered a knockout loss to him at UFC 300, but couldn’t help but compliment “Poatan” for his performance.
“Great main event, absolute dominant performance by Alex from start to finish,” Hill said on his YouTube channel. “I believe this is honestly probably the first fight that I’ve seen where Alex came out and won the fight from start until he got the finish. He didn’t have to come back and – it was still some adversity, Jiri still presented his challenges in it, but he adapted and he made good adjustments.”
Pereira knocked down Prochazka at the end of Round 1 with a left hook, and was able to take him out with a head kick just 13 seconds into Round 2. Pereira later revealed that he noticed a tendency in Prochazka’s warmup which he was able to capitalize on.
“The adjustment that I seen that Alex made from that was the check hook,” Hill said. “More so before, you see him in come like he steps in with that hook and he tries to land it leaning in and throwing his power forward. This time we seen him implement it from more of a defensive and a counteractive manner in this particular fighting sequence.
“The first hook that he landed on Jiri, he hit him and you could see the eyes roll, you could see him get dazed a little bit. From there, he landed another one that kind of wobbled him, that kind of shook the legs a little bit and then he landed the one at the end of the round that put him on his back. It’s beautiful adjustments bro, beautiful adjustments. He looked evolved, he looked like he’s taking more steps and getting better as a fighter.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 303.