On the heels of his loss to Khalil Rountree Jr. on the UFC Fight Night: Baku card, former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill is planning to take some time off.
Hill entered into the fight eager to get back in the win column after losing back-to-back bouts to Alex Pereira and Jiří Procházka. Instead, he wound up on the wrong end of a lopsided unanimous decision that dropped him to No. 6 on the UFC.com light heavyweight rankings.
In a video released on his YouTube channel this week, Hill announced that he will be taking some time off from fighting.
“For now, I’m going to take the time that I need to make sure that I can focus on my injuries, give them the time that they need to get them back to strength and back to feeling like me again.”
“I’m going to take time out, take a little bit of time to get back to where I know I can be and get back to that exciting fighter and that dominant champion that I know that I am,”
You can see his comments in the video below beginning at the 9:43 mark.
In addition, Hill explained that he needs to change the way he approaches fights, from his recovery and his training, to his discipline.
Jamahal Hill Gets Brutally Honest on Recent Performance
Leading up to Jamahal Hill’s recent fight with Khalil Rountree Jr., the former champ took umbrage with Rountree’s claim that he would make it through the fight without shedding a drop of blood.
At the time, Sweet Dreams vowed to make the former Ultimate Fighter finalist bleed, however, after a hard-fought 25 minutes, it was clear that Hill had incurred significantly more damage.
During the aforementioned YouTube video, he reflected on the pre-fight trash talk, speaking openly and honestly about his poor performance:
“I know there was a lot made and said of the things before the fight, me saying the comments of Khalil’s not on my level and said the same my last few fights, but to be honest, I haven’t been on my level. I haven’t been on my level now for quite some time.”
As he indicated, a lot of his recent struggles inside the Octagon can be attributed to never properly recovering from his Achilles tear.
Quick Return From Achilles Tear Cost Hill
As the former champ revealed on YouTube, since tearing his achilles while playing basketball in 2023, he hasn’t run.
Because of that, he’s been limited in his cardio work during training camp, and following his latest loss to Khalil Rountree, he knows it’s something that has to change.
“I haven’t run since the injury, just a feeling of maybe ‘I can’t,’ things like that. Just the strength not being there to my legs. That’s something that has to change. I have to change the amount of work that I’m willing to do, the amount of push that I give in my preparation.
“I’m fighting the best in the world right now and I’m at a championship level and I must live like a champion.”
With the year already half over, it sounds like there’s a chance we don’t see the former champ again until 2026.
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