UFC President Dana White finally revealed the UFC 300 main event immediately after the end of the card on Saturday in Anaheim, California. It took a while, but now we know that Alex Pereira will defend his light-heavyweight title against the former champion of the same division, Jamahal Hill.
UFC 300 Main Event: Alex Pereira vs Jamahal Hill, Everything We Know
With less than two months until the anniversary event, White ended all speculation about the top fight of the evening. With this fight, UFC 300 will feature two title matches, or three if you count Gaethje vs Holloway for the BMF belt. The other one is Zhang Weili vs Yan Xiaonan for the Women’s Strawweight title.
Several months ago, White made a huge announcement, claiming that the UFC 300 fight card would be the biggest in MMA history. According to him, every single fight on the card would be worthy of a main event. Now that we know almost all the participants, we can say that he mostly kept his word.
From what we’ve seen online, however, fans expected more from this card and we understand why. Unfortunately, promoters can’t throw in five title bouts on a single card as there are PPV events every month. Moreover, the list of available top fighters for a fight in April is not that long.
Pereira vs Hill for the UFC 300 main event is a logical choice as most of the other top fighters on the roster already have scheduled fights or fought too recently. The most recent rumors involved the idea of Leon Edwards vs Khamzat Chimaev for the Welterweight title but had huge doubts about that one from the moment we heard about it.
The most significant rumors were related to Conor McGregor and Jon Jones. It would have been iconic if Conor returned for UFC 300 but we nowadays even doubt that he will ever return to the octagon. He postponed his next fight several times already and it seems that it will happen at least one more time. Dana White recently confirmed that he will not return in the summer.
As for Jon Jones, he announced that he would not be ready to perform at the anniversary event. In an interview last week, he described a call had with Hunter Campbell, one of the UFC’s top lawyers. He called him to ask if Jones would be ready to headline the UFC 300 main event.
The UFC heavyweight champion explained why he refused: “As much as I’m proud of this opportunity, I just don’t think I’ll be ready. I simply refused. I’m getting to an age where I only have a few fights left and I want to give it my all and make sure I come back 100 percent.”
UFC 300 needed one more title match and there were only two options. With Jones out, the heavyweight division has been put on hold. The middleweight title match was in January, the welterweight and flyweight title matches happened in December, and the featherweight and bantamweight title matches were already scheduled for February (UFC 298) and March (UFC 299).
White had to pick between Islam Makhachev and Alex Pereira as they last defended their belts in October and November. And we now have our answer. Alex Pereira will defend his belt against the former champion Jamahal Hill in the UFC 300 main event.
UFC 300 Full Card: Lineup In No Particular Order
• Light-Heavyweight Title: Alex Pereira vs Jamahal Hill
• Women’s Strawweight Title: Zhang Weili vs Yan Xiaonan
• BMF Title: Justin Gaethje vs Max Holloway
• Lightweight: Charles Oliveira vs Arman Tsarukyan
• Light-Heavyweight: Jiri Prochazka vs Aleksandar Rakic
• Featherweight: Calvin Kattar vs Ajlamain Sterling
• Middleweight: Bo Nickal vs Cody Brundage
• Bantamweight: Deiveson Figueiredo vs Cody Garbrandt
• Women’s Bantamweight: Holly Holm vs Kayla Harrison
• Featherweight: Sodiq Yusuff vs Diego Lopes
• Women’s Strawweight: Jessica Andrade vs Marina Rodriguez
• Lightweight: Bobby Green vs Jim Miller
Keep in mind that Dana White also said there will be at least one more bout on that card. He also already hinted that Figueiredo vs Garbrandt will be the opening match of the card. This means the remaining bout has to be more attractive, but who is actually left without a fight? Who could it be? Khamzat Chimaev maybe? What are your predictions?
Vlad is a former amateur MMA fighter. After a series of injuries, he found a different way to connect with the sport and its fanbase - through writing. He's been covering everything-UFC for over 5 years on various platforms and has been part of the team at NYFights since early 2022.
