After months of speculation, there was finally an announcement regarding the main event of UFC 300 as Dana White made it official last night.
The main event had been a hot debate among the MMA community as many speculated that Conor McGregor would make his long awaited return against Michael Chandler, while others speculated that Israel Adesanya vs middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis would headline the event.
Following last night’s PPV event, White took to his social media and put the rumors to rest as he officially announced that light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira will defend his title against former champion Jamahal Hill.
‘Poatan’ earned a second-round knockout over former champion Jiri Prochazka to win the vacant light heavyweight championship this past November, and will be making his first title defense. He joined the impressive list of fighters to become a UFC champion in two different weight classes.
What made the feat impressive is that he accomplished that in such a short amount of time and has defeated former champion including Sean Strickland, Israel Adesanya, Jan Blachowicz, and Prochazka. In addition, the Brazilian had also been a two-division Glory Kickboxing champion prior to his transition into MMA.
‘Sweet Dreams’, on the other hand, will be returning to the octagon for the first time since his light heavyweight title win over Glover Teixeira last January in Brazil. He was unfortunately forced to relinquish his title this past July after tearing his Achilles.
There is some history between the two as Pereira was in the corner of his longtime friend and coach Teixeira in what ended up being his retirement fight against Hill. They then went back-and-forth on social media when ‘Poatan’, who was middleweight champion at the time, teased a move up to 205lbs for a champion vs. champion clash.
It will be interesting to see what transpires in that bout as both are capable of highlight reel knockouts.
[Photo credit: UFC.com and @ufc – X]
