Jamahal Hill: Jiri Prochazka stronger than Alex Pereira, needs to mix it up to win vacant title at UFC 295

Jamahal Hill thinks Jiri Prochazka will have to use all his tools to beat Alex Pereira.

Prochazka (29-3-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and Pereira (8-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) will battle for the promotion’s vacant light heavyweight title in the UFC 295 co-headliner Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The belt was relinquished in July by Jamahal Hill, who suffered an Achilles tendon injury in a pickup basketball game.

As he awaits the winner, Hill isn’t sure who he will be fighting upon his return. But, if former champion Prochazka wants to get his hand raised, Hill says he can’t just stand and trade with Pereira.

“I think that one’s a tossup, if I’m being completely honest,” Hill said on the “Believe You Me” podcast. “I think that fight can truly go either way. I think Jiri, the way he strikes – yeah, he has the wild, kind of loose style, but Alex isn’t going for that. He’s not going for the tricks. He’s not going for all the out there (stuff) because he has a specific mission and specific points in places he wants to be when he’s striking and when he’s engaging, and I think Alex is better at getting to those spots than Jiri is.

“But I think physically, Jiri will be the more physical, more physically strong fighter. I think Jiri has more MMA experience. I think if he can use his unorthodox-ness to, instead of trying to strike, to actually get in and mix and be rounded around in mixed martial arts, clinch him up, beat him up in the clinch, drag him to the ground, I think that’d moreso be his best way – making it an all-round mixed martial arts fight.”

Hill doesn’t have a preference on who wins, and sees the two matchups as entertaining scraps. He looks forward to fighting both.

“Honestly, if I had my choice and I had my pick, I would have not gotten hurt,” Hill said. “I would have had them both be in the position that they are and I’d have whooped their ass one by one.”