Jamahal Hill criticizes referee Herb Dean after UFC 300 controversy
During a recent interview with The Schmo, Hill reversed his stance on Dean’s non-stoppage at UFC 300.
“It’s protect yourself at all times, but after they tell you that, it’s obey my commands at all times too,” Hill said. “In the moment, whenever it happened, I stopped. He said ‘Stop’ before he interjected and I stopped. You can see Alex continue to close the distance on me…him closing that angle on me while I’m trying to check and make sure he’s good and things like that, it was a gritty competitor move. Something I should’ve peeked and caught on to and protected myself against…
“If Herb Dean could’ve done anything, I would’ve liked to have had a more clean and better reset,” Hill continued. “The fact that a ref would give your opponent the control of the Octagon like that, it makes me kinda think before I just straight-up disengage and just obey a ref’s command like that, if I’m being honest. I’m not trying to make an excuse or anything, but if there’s one thing that I look back on the fight that I would’ve done differently, it would’ve been disregarding that command and stayed on my fight, like I was, the angles.”
Luckily for Hill, he won’t have to wait long for a chance at redemption inside the Octagon. He’ll face the streaking Khalil Rountree at UFC 303, a card headlined by Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler.
Hill could potentially earn a rematch with Pereira with an impressive performance against Rountree. If a rematch comes to fruition, the controversial ending to UFC 300 will likely be a major part of the pre-fight storyline.
