Hill Calls Out Aspinall — ‘Get Ready for Me’

Jamahal Hill wants to reclaim the light heavyweight crown he was forced to surrender after tearing his achilles tendon last July. The means to that end is a 205-pound title fight against newly-minted division champion Alex Pereira, who stopped former titleholder Jiri Prochazka in the UFC 295 headliner last weekend in New York.

After that?

Perhaps a trip north to face current interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, who secured the substitute strap by planishing fellow 265-pound contender Sergei Pavlovich in the UFC 295 co-main event.

“I think Tom is a stud, I think Tom is like the new prototype of what heavyweights are,” Hill told TNT Sports. “I definitely wanna do my thing at 205 and then go up and eventually see him too. So Tom, get ready for me baby, someday. I think he has great movement. I think his coaches focus on a lot of good things, the right things to give him an edge in this game. A lot of them have the same philosophy as my coaches have and employ with me and things like that. I think he’s definitely built the right way, the way fighters should be built. It’s exciting. I’m game. I’m always game. Any time I see somebody exciting or new or they’re bringing something fresh to the cage, I wanna test myself against that.”

The 32 year-old Hill (12-1, 1 NC) rebounded from a technical knockout loss to Paul Craig to rattle off four straight wins, including his title-winning performance against Glover Teixeira at UFC 283 earlier this year in Brazil.

First things first.

Aspinall will be waiting for Jon Jones to recover from pectoral surgery and fight former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic at some point later next year. UFC will then book a “champion vs. champion” unification bout to close out 2024. That would require Hill to win the light heavyweight title — and defend it — before finding his way up north in 2025.

Crazier things have happened.