Jamahal Hill, Israel Adesanya UFC title superfight branded as ‘Stupid’, ‘Waste of time’
A floated undisputed light heavyweight title fight between champions, Jamahal Hilla and Israel Adesanya has been described as both “stupid” and a “waste of everybody’s time” according to former UFC title challenger, Chael Sonnen.
Headlining UFC 287 earlier this month in a middleweight title rematch with Alex Pereira, Adesanya managed to land the undisputed crown with a thunderous second round KO win over the Brazilian – reclaiming his championship in the process.
And in the immediate aftermath of his championship success, Israel Adesanya, who has been touted to make a return to the Octagon before the end of summer, was floated to make a light heavyweight division return in pursuit of a title fight against Hill, by his head coach, Eugene Bareman.
Chael Sonnen shoots down potential Jamahal Hill, Israel Adesanya
However, according to former division title challenger, Sonnen, any potential talk of a matchup between Jamahal Hill and Israel Adesanya and a subsequent title outing should be branded as “stupid”.
“Eugene Bareman went on Ariel [Helwani’s] program [The MMA Hour] – I try to stay away from Eugene Bareman,” Chael Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “I try to stay away from all coaches, I think coaches are above us. Eugene Bareman gets a lot of hate. He comes across as a combination of wildly arrogant and dumb as rocks. This is true – when he comes out and he sits with Ariel Helwani, he comes across as very arrogant – his ideas are so bad, he looks stupid.”
“He gave an idea for (Israel) Adesanya to go up and challenge Jamahal (Hill),” Sonnen explained. “Now you’re just being a guy that’s talking. You’re wasting everybody’s time. …Do we need to explain to him how his protégé (Israel) Adesanya did at 205 [pounds]? It didn’t work.” (Transcribed by MMA News)
Previously competing at the light heavyweight limit during his Octagon tenure, City Kickboxing staple, Adesanya suffered a unanimous decision loss to Jan Blachowicz in a 2021 title fight – with the Pole recently offering to drop to middleweight in pursuit of a title rematch.
As for Hill, the Dana White’s Contender Series alum has been linked with both a title fight against Adesanya, as well as former middleweight champion, Pereira – with the Sao Paulo striker confirming his intentions to make an Octagon return at the light heavyweight limit next.
