UFC Light Heavyweight Championship with Alex Pereira at UFC 300 with a first-round TKO victory over Jamahal Hill to close the main event from Las Vegas.
Once again Perera used his excellent striking and one-punch power to put one away.
Hill kicks in the beltline. Referee Herb Dean went to check if he had been hit below the belt, but continued to land strikes before cutting Hill with a left hook, landing him and ending the fight early.
There is no shortage of praise and excitement for Perera's latest masterpiece:
The win gives the light heavyweight division some stability. The weight class has been marked by turmoil since Jon Jones left the division to pursue the heavyweight crown. Pereira is the second fighter to successfully defend the belt since Ponce vacated it in 2020.
Since then, five different fighters have held the belt, including Hill. The now-defeated challenger won the belt by unanimous decision over Glover Teixeira in January 2023, but vacated it due to an Achilles injury.
That opened the door for Pereira to become a two-division champion when he moved up from middleweight against Jiri Proszka at UFC 295.
The 36-year-old doesn't want to sit back and take things easy now. He has his sights set on UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in a few weeks on May 4. The Brazilian would love to put on the belt in his home country.
“I can definitely, absolutely fight at UFC 301,” he said in an interview Tom Taylor Bleacher Report. “As long as I don't have any injuries everything will be fine.. if I leave this fight [with Hill] Barring injury, I will use this training camp to fight on that card against anyone the UFC puts in front of me.”
That's a pretty quick turnaround time, but if post-fight medicine somehow works, there are few options that make sense.
Magomed Angelev would have been a title challenger this time, but the card was there Very close to Ramadan. It's unclear if he's ready to take a short-notice stint.
If the timing doesn't work, Jiri Prochaska May also be an option if medically cleared and available. On the undercard, Proszka won against Aleksandar Rakic.
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