Michael Bisping believes the UFC 300 lineup is getting unwarranted criticism.
It took a while for the UFC 300 main event to get announced, but it was finally made public Saturday that light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (9-2 MMA, 6-1 UFC) will defend his title against Jamahal Hill (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) April 13 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Many viewed the fight as an underwhelming choice to headline the historic pay-per-view, but Bisping heavily disagrees.
“Fantastic news, brilliant fight,” Bisping told TNT Sports on Pereira vs. Hill. “I want to start by saying thank God because can we stop going on about it now? That’s all anyone has been talking about: What will the UFC 300 main event be? I thought this was a strong contender right from the get-go. Of course, (Michael) Chandler vs. Conor (McGregor) would have been great, (Jon) Jones vs. Stipe (Miocic) or (Tom) Aspinall would have been phenomenal, but we knew that wasn’t happening.
“Jamahal Hill is the rightful No. 1 contender. He relinquished the belt. Alex Pereira, come on. A two-weight division champion, beaten former champions, the rise through the ranks in the UFC is phenomenal, and then you combine it, the cherry on top of this ridiculous fight card. I don’t understand all this chatter online. People are just criticizing for the sake of it. Almost every single fight could be a main event. It’s a phenomenal event.”
The current UFC 300 lineup includes:
- Champion Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill – for light heavyweight title
- Champion Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway – for BMF title
- Champion Weilli Zhang vs. Xiaonan Yan – for strawweight title
- Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan
- Kayla Harrison vs. Holly Holm
- Calvin Kattar vs. Aljamain Sterling
- Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic
- Diego Lopes vs. Sodiq Yusuff
- Jessica Andrade vs. Marina Rodriguez
- Bobby Green vs. Jim Miller
- Cody Brundage vs. Bo Nickal
- Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Cody Garbrandt
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.
Michael Bisping calls UFC 300 ‘a phenomenal event,’ confused by criticism