‘Poatan’ Dubs Jiri’s Skill Level ‘Superior’ To Jamahal

Pereira doesn’t seem overly impressed with Hill’s stand-up abilities, ranking them lower than the man he just knocked out in two rounds.

Jamahal Hill has let it be known that he’s not impressed with the disrespect being leveled at him by fans and the press leading into his UFC 300 title fight against Alex Pereira. That hasn’t stopped more people from piling on, including “Poatan” himself.

In a new interview with Shakiel Mahjouri, Pereira compared Hill to his last opponent Jiri Prochazka and stated Jiri was the better striker.

“I think Jiri is more accurate and precise with his strikes, the way that he flows, the way that he fights,” Alex said through his translator. “Jamahal, he’ll have a little more advantage on his power, which makes him dangerous because nobody wants to take a hit and go down in a fight. But when you talk about skill level, Jiri Prochazka is superior.”

Jamahal Hill has claimed he plans to stand and bang with the terrifying Brazilian kickboxer, a suggestion other fighters believe is a ruse. But given how prickly “Sweet Dreams” can be, it doesn’t hurt to denigrate his stand-up skills a little in the hopes he’ll be more more inclined to try and prove Pereira wrong on April 13th.

We may see a few new wrinkles out of “Poatan” at UFC 300. The stone faced fighter has joined the ranks of MMA champions who have spent time training with 7th-dan aikido black belt Steven Seagal. Previous Seagal ‘pupils’ include Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida.

“Training with Steven Seagal was awesome,” Pereira said. “Don’t take the [criticism], put everything aside bro: he’s legit. And it was the same as when I trained with Anderson Silva, [Seagal] showed some very productive things that I had already used in my game and used in training, I saw the same mindset and saw that he could implement them in fights.”

“Same for when I went training with Anderson. Anderson showed me some stuff that I was already knew but thought was a little crazy, but he’s like ‘No, this is actually good to use.’

“Steven Seagal opened my mind a little bit,” he concluded. “It was good, it was good to share and trade ideas with him, so it was a very good time for me.”