Exclusive: Jamahal Hill Offers timeline for his uFC Return
Former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill has offered up a potential timeline for his return to the Octagon.
Six months after capturing the 205-pound title following a dominant performance against Glover Teixeira in January, Jamahal Hill was forced to vacate the strap after suffering a ruptured Achilles, an injury that could keep him on the shelf for a year, if not longer.
As a result, former world champions Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira will meet in the UFC 295 co-main event on November 11 with the winner emerging as the newly crowned light heavyweight king. Hill already knows that he will walk directly into a title opportunity once cleared to return, but the question is, when could that be?
Speaking with James Lynch in a LowKick MMA exclusive interview, Jamahal Hill revealed that he’s not focused on returning by a specific date or event. Instead, ‘Sweet Dreams’ is putting everything into his recovery to ensure that when he does come back, he’ll be 100% healed and ready to reclaim the title he never lost.
“My understanding is just to focus on recovery. Not putting a timeline on it,” Hill said. “Just working to see where we are.”
Jamahal Hill Hasn’t Ruled out a potential return at uFC 300
Asked if he has considered a potential return at UFC 300, slated to go down in or around April 2024, ‘Sweet Dreams’ confirmed that he hasn’t ruled out the possibility.
“I haven’t ruled it out, but right now we’re just seeing… We’re going through the recovery and we’re gonna see.” He also confirmed that, thus far, there have been no setbacks in the recovery process. “There haven’t been any setbacks. Things have been going well. I have a really good doctor. I have a really good team that’s working on me to make sure I get back to where I need to be.”
Making his professional mixed martial arts debut in 2017, Jamahal Hill amassed a 5-0 record before earning his UFC contract on a 2019 episode of Dana White’s Contender Series with a second-round knockout of Alexander Poppeck. Since then, ‘Sweet Dreams’ has added another six wins to his record, including his world-title-winning performance against Glover Teixeira at UFC 283.
Hill recently confirmed that he will be at UFC 295 next month to witness the crowning of a new light heavyweight champion. Could we see ‘Sweet Dreams’ step into the Octagon for a face-off with the winner? We’ll find out on November 11.
