.png)
UFC Vegas 59 went down on Saturday night from inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the main event of the evening, Jamahal Hill stopped Thiago Santos via strikes in the fourth round. Hill stopped former title challenger Thiago Santos via technical knockout at 2 minutes 31 seconds mark of the fourth round in the main event of UFC Fight Night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Hill dropped Santos with punches and then finished things with a flurry on the ground. Santos tried to defend on the mat, but Hill landed elbows until referee Herb Dean stopped the fight.
It wasn’t the only highlight of the event that went down on Saturday night as Geoff Neal and Muhammad Usman also won in emphatic fashion. Julianna Miller also won the female Ultimate Fighter Series after an impressive performance. Surprisingly, Usman is the younger brother of UFC’s welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. They are the first pair of brothers who both have won the Ultimate Fighter series.
Jamahal Hill is proving to be the dark horse in the light heavyweight division of the UFC. He once again put all the fighters in his division on alert after his amazing performance against a top veteran Thiago Santos. Hill was unranked going into this bout but he was recently moved to sixth place in the light heavyweight rankings. This might be a huge uplift for ‘Sweet Dreams’ as he stretched his winning streak to three wins after beating Santos since his last defeat back at UFC two sixty three.
With Hill’s victory the state of the light heavyweight division seems spiced up a bit as there are upcoming contenders ready to close the gap up top. UFC two seventy seven saw Magomed Ankalaev win over Anthony Smith and make his mark on the division as well. While Jan Blachowicz is eagerly waiting to get another shot to the title after his anticlimactic win over Alexander Rakic. However, the newly crowned champion Jiri Prochazka made it clear in his recent video that he will offer the rematch to Glover Teixeira. Those two fought at UFC two seventy five in Singapore and engaged in an absolute war. Prochazka managed to win the bout with only 25 seconds left in the fight as he submitted Teixeira to win the UFC Light heavyweight championship.
Interestingly, Jamahal Hill has clearly spoken out of his intentions to fight the current Champion next. Many experts believe that a title shot for Hill would be a little too early as he needs to go through fighters of higher caliber. Santos was no doubt a tough test for ‘Sweet Dreams’ but coming into the fight Santos only had one win in his last five bouts. Meanwhile, Hill has only one loss on his record when he lost against Paul Craig back at UFC two sixty three.
Furthermore, Jamahal Hill was also a critic of his own performance after the fight. He thought that he could have done much better in specific situations which Santos put him in. He wants to work on his game, especially on the ground. Santos was successful in taking Hill down five times, that's why he wasn’t a fan of his own performance. Indeed it is a positive sign for Hill to diagnose his own weaknesses as he is only going to face tougher competition if he aims to wrap that Light heavyweight gold around his waist.
Ever since Jon Jones left the division back in 2020 there have been three different champions in a span of two years. This signifies that the division lacks a proper champion. Jiri Prochazka has shown signs of becoming a true champion but only time will tell if he can defend the belt against the upcoming challengers. As far as Jamahal Hill is considered, it seems that the sky's the limit for the thirty one year old. Let’s not forget, Hill only made his UFC debut three years ago coming out of Contender Series, and he already has a bevy of impressive wins on his resume, and taking out a former title contender only adds to his bragging rights. The competition will only get tougher from here on out, but the 31-year-old Hill is more than capable, so expect amazing things from him in his upcoming battle.
Comments