Alex Pereira flattens Jamahal Hill with devastating first-round knockout to cap off UFC 300

The legend of Alex Pereira continued to grow with his latest win to cap off the historic UFC 300 card on Saturday night.

Following an action-packed night of fight, the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion delivered an emphatic exclamation point on the evening with a stunning first-round knockout to finish Jamahal Hill to defend his belt.

The end came after Pereira actually waved off referee Dean following a low blow and then just seconds later he blasted Hill with a monstrous left hook. Hill’s eyes rolled back in his head as he crashed to the canvas with Pereira quickly following him to the ground.

Pereira unloaded a few more shots as Hill went limp and Dean rushed in to halt the contest with the official stoppage coming at 3:14 in the opening round.

“You guys can see what I was doing in there,” Pereira said following the winl. “I told everyone the whole time, he’s a strong guy. I cannot go away from my strategy. That’s exactly what I was doing. Everything went perfectly.”

It was effectively a flawless performance as Pereira didn’t really take any damage whatsoever in the fight outside of a couple inside leg kicks from Hill during the early exchanges. The light heavyweights showed a lot of respect for each other, both realizing that a single mistakes could easily end the fight.

That’s exactly how it played out because Pereira just kept measuring the distance with a series of leg kicks but never overextending with his strikes. It wasn’t until the low blow reverberated off his cup that saw Pereira reset momentarily before stepping back into another exchange with Hill.

Pereira stepped forward and unleashed the left hook that sent Hill down to the canvas in a dramatic fall. The follow up punches just ensured there was no question about the finish as Pereira put Hill down once and for all.

Afterwards, the fighters embraced and shared a few words despite some bad blood between them during the days leading up to the event. As far as the performance goes, Pereira admitted that he approaches every fight the same exact way and those are the results he wanted.

“To be honest when I step into the octagon, I don’t see myself as the champion,” Pereira said. “I do the same thing outside of it in my personal life. I don’t let this belt go to my head. I have to come in here and I have to win this belt every time to become the champion. I don’t let it go to my head ever.”

As far as what comes next, Pereira talked often leading up to UFC 300 that he wanted to actually make a quick turnaround and compete at UFC 301 in Brazil in May. That seems rather unlikely, although Pereira did throw out an interesting idea in closing that may at least get the UFC’s attention.

“I want to continue defending this belt,” Pereira said. “I talked a lot about fighting in Brazil if I won this fight. I won this fight, I’m not hurt, nothing happened. I want to have a fight at heavyweight.”