The former UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill had his name brought up in an unexpected conversation during UFC 309 fight week. A huge talking point surrounding the event was Jon Jones’ future after many expected that the consensus greatest of all time would retire after headlining Madison Square Garden.
Amongst the debate of him fighting Tom Aspinall or Alex Pereira next, Jones suggested a few other options that caught a lot of fight fans by surprise. “Bones” claimed that he only wanted to compete in fights against guy that are similar to him and in fights that the fans wanted to see.
He proceeded to name Derrick Lewis and Hill as two of those match-ups, much to the surprise of everyone else. “Sweet Dreams” hasn’t been a name that has been heavily linked to Jones, especially after he lost the 205-pound title at UFC 300 earlier this year.
In a recent interview with Inside Fighting, he gave his reaction to hearing Jones mention his name and the reaction that it brought from the fans.
“Yeah 100% it did. However, people getting weird about it, it’s like, he called me out?! You know what I mean. Which, that’s a fight that I’ve wanted since I got here. That was the first name that came out of my mouth whenever they put a UFC camera in front of me so for him to say that now to me, lets me know that I’ve been doing the right things.”
Hil’s attention is currently focused on Jiří Procházka who he will face at UFC 311 in January though he did say that with a potential fight against Jones likely taking place at heavyweight, moving up a weight class is something that is in his future.
“Yeah, that’s my plan eventually. I got a couple challenges here that I want to have, questions that I want to answer at this weight but then yeah, eventually I do want to move up.”
