The beef between Jamahal Hill and Alex Pereira isn’t ending anytime soon, as fans are still talking about their run in 2024. The fighter’s beef has fans taking Pereira’s side but Michael Bisping seems to be in Jamahal Hill’s corner.
Following Hill’s loss to Alex Pereira in 2025, the two had an altercation at the UFC Performance Institute that almost came to blows. Pereira suggested the two take the fight to the cage, but Hill declined the offer. His refusal to fight gave fans a different view of Hill, with many believing he bit off more than he could chew, but UFC veteran Michael Bisping sees things differently.
Bisping believes Hill had good reason to deny the fight offer, as stepping into the cage at that moment would not offer him any money.
“Pereira threw the gloves at him and Jamahal was like, ‘What are you talking about? I’m not going to fight you here in the gym. I’m going to fight you and get paid for that,’” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “Now, a lot of people’s opinions on social media is that Jamahal kind of bitched out, but I’ll be honest, I kind of agreed with his take.
“Why would you want to fight in the gym when you can get paid a ridiculous amount of money to fight for real? Although, on the flip side, I see why people say that as well. I see why they thought he kind of wimped out a little bit because he approached him, and Pereira threw the gloves. They are in the gym. They could’ve trained, they could’ve done a round or two, but it would’ve gotten carried away. It would’ve escalated out of control, and somebody might have ended up getting hurt.”
Hill and Pereira fought against each other at UFC 300 in 2024, where Pereira put “Sweet Dreams” to sleep with a first-round knockout. The loss wasn’t the only defeat Hill faced as Pereira went on to mock him by gesturing towards him after the knockout. Since the fight, Hill has been out for blood and has accused Pereira of being a bad sportsman on multiple occasions. Bisping can understand Hill’s sentiment as he says he sees a bit of himself in the fighter, but he has hopes for the fighter and believes the fighter will eventually grow up.
“Right now, Jamahal Hill, people are shitting on him, but the guy’s in fight mode,” Bisping said. “He’s fighting Jiri Prochazka [at UFC 311]. As well as the fact that he’s probably a little embarrassed, he’s a little bit annoyed, the fact that he has a reason he can say in his mind why Alex Pereira was able to catch him — I’m not saying there is a reason. What I’m saying is our egos as fighters make us believe that we can beat anybody on the planet in a fight, and when somebody interrupts the fight the way the referee did, and then he gets clipped, ‘That’s what happened.’ …
“That’s why Jamahal feels that way, and that’s why he wants another pop, and that’s why a lot of people are going after him and talking a lot of shit. And then you combine it with he’s fighting Jiri Prochazka in under two weeks, who is a former champion himself, who’s got a very good shot at beating Jamahal Hill, let’s be honest. … Jamahal Hill right now is under a tremendous amount of pressure because he wants to get back to winning ways, he wants to get another shot at Alex Pereira, he wants to prove to the world that ‘the reason I didn’t put those gloves on at the PI is because I want to fight him in an octagon and I want to beat him fair and square, and I want to get paid.’”
Despite his loss and lack of support from fans, Hill is determined to get another chance to face Pereira and avenge his loss.
