Jamahal Hill recently shared his thoughts on the now-iconic scene in which Alex Pereira overrode referee Herb Dean to stop “Sweet Dreams.”
Hill (12-2) challenged Pereira for his light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 300 earlier this month. Pereira absorbed and brushed off Hill’s sharp low blow in the first round, preventing Dean from intervening and knocking out “Sweet Dreams” shortly after.
Many, including former double champion Daniel Cormier, have questioned Dean’s handling of the situation, criticizing him for allowing Pereira to continue so soon after calling time. Hill also thinks Dean could have done things differently.
According to Hill, this interesting moment influenced his knockout loss to Poitan. Hill claims he slightly neglected to listen to Dean’s call time and abandoned the angle while Pereira continued to advance. Hill doesn’t want to make excuses and praises Pereira for capitalizing on the moment, but he would have liked Dean to reset properly. The Chicago native is also worried about fully deferring to the referee in the future after feeling Dean gave Pereira control of the Octagon.
“‘Always protect yourself,’ but like right after that.”
[referees] Let me tell you, it also means ‘always follow my orders,”’ Hill told Schmo. “Every time that happened, I stopped. [Dean] I stopped before he could say stop. And I see that Alex continues to grow closer to me.So I understand it’s a cold moment, he got hit hard, pushed it away, and he came [to score a knockout]. It wasn’t a groin attack or him closing an angle on me while I was trying to see if he was good or anything like that, it was a gritty, competitive move.What I should have looked into and grasped
[and] It protected me from. I wish Herb Dean would have done a cleaner and better reset if he had anything to do with it.
“The fact that that referee gives control of the Octagon to his opponent like that makes you think a little bit before you immediately break away and just follow the orders of a referee like that. Honestly. Like I said, I’m not trying to make excuses, but if there’s one thing I think about when I look back at the game, it’s that I wish I had done things differently, instead of ignoring the orders and staying in my position. The only step I took was at that moment when I was expecting a little break. [Dean] He backed up behind me so he wasn’t exactly in my line of sight when he gave the go-ahead. I heard the “fighting” sound, but it was a little slow. Listening to it on the video, I felt like people noticed it was a little louder and things like that. ”
Veteran referee and mixed martial arts commentator John McCarthy, who also helped create the uniform rules for mixed martial arts, defended Dean amid criticism. McCarthy said the fighter who absorbs the low blow has full authority to decide when to resume action.
Hearing people who supposedly know the sport of MMA denigrate the practice of MMA is inherently bad for the sport and incredibly embarrassing. @HerbDeanMMA
As if he was responsible for the knockout. @JamahalH
@ufc
300.
Let’s make this as clear as possible to everyone. Herbs are…
— Big John McCarthy (@JohnMcCarthyMMA)
April 18, 2024
Nevertheless, less than a week after suffering a KO loss to Pereira, Hill’s next fight was scheduled for June 29th against Khalil Rountree (13-5) in the co-main event of UFC 303. ) has been decided. Hill wants a landslide victory over Rountree to stake his claim to a rematch. The matchup with Pereira is clearly more important to Sweet Dreams than winning the title at this point.
“Honestly, for me right now, it’s not even a gold strap, it’s getting back to that fight,” Hill said. “I want to fight Alex again, because of the story and everything surrounding it. And I know what I was feeling there and I know that when I stepped in there I felt like I was actually I know what it was like, so I just want to go to that game, that’s the game I want.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3xbmItNL1s
