No. 3-ranked light heavyweight contender Magomed Ankalaev wants the next crack at the 205-pound title, insisting the “math” behind his campaign checks out. In fact, the Russian bruiser has been working hard to secure the UFC 300 pay-per-view (PPV) main event against current 205-pound titleholder Alex Pereira.
Former division champion Jamahal Hill, ranked two spots above Ankalaev at No. 1, recently debunked those “weird” calculations with some math of his own. Safe to say “Sweet Dreams” is not impressed with Ankalaev’s formula across his last few fights, which include a draw against Jan Blachowicz and a No Contest opposite Johnny Walker.
“That’s some weird math to try to math,” Hill said on YouTube. “First, Magomed, I get it, you want your dream to come true and things like that. You want to get back to a shot and you’re hungry. Like, bro is not very bright. He doesn’t do bright things. Nothing about his movement or motion or anything he does seems bright at all, so I’m not really surprised that he has a not-so-bright take on this whole thing. So let’s analyze this. Let’s look at our last four fights.
“Minus this Johnny Walker fight, you had a no-contest that you could have been disqualified for because you can’t seem to understand what the rules are, you can’t knee people in the head when they’re on the ground, as well as how you seem to always hit people in the back of the head. Like I said, not high IQ things, just in there swinging. So you go from no-contest, a draw, and you had a win before—the ninth win that you’re talking about, the guy broke his leg, shout out Anthony Smith—now Anthony Smith broke his leg. He injured himself in that fight. So it wasn’t like you went in and dominated that fight. It was an underwhelming performance, just like the draw, just like the fight before this last one.”
The 32 year-old Hill (12-1, 1 NC) is the winner of four straight, three by way of knockout. “Sweet Dreams” was forced to surrender the 205-pound strap after tearing his achilles heel last July, but is working hard to make his Octagon comeback at some point in the coming months.
“So where in this math—see, we’re in the entertainment business,” Hill said. “You’re not entertaining. Nobody wants to watch you fight. Nobody’s rushing to pay for your pay-per-view. So whenever it comes down to that, exciting and people want to see fight, I guarantee more people want to see me fight than they want to see you fight. And in that alone, that math, is already killing you. My last four fights have been domination, finish, finish, finish. I’m the former champion. You were given the same chance to become champion and you s*** the bed. You couldn’t finish the job, you couldn’t do it, it wasn’t meant to be for you.”
“Whenever I stepped up, I showed my true colors, and I showed that I was ready to step up and actually be a champion,” Hill said. “You walk around with this fake entitlement like you’re supposed to just be crowned the champion and it’s just supposed to be for you. You had your chance, you blew it. Now you sit on the sidelines and you wait. You haven’t earned anything, you don’t deserve anything. The most you can earn is consideration of the spot that you’re in right now.”
As of this writing, Pereira remains unbooked.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
