The UFC had an early morning show in Macau, China this morning and during the post-fight show, the promotion announced a big time matchup that’s heading to the first PPV of 2025. It was announced that at UFC 311 on January 18th from Los Angelas, former light heavyweight champions Jiri Prochazka (30-5-1) and Jamahal Hill (12-2, 1 NC) will go head-to-head.
This is a fight that is a couple of years in the making. Back in June 2022, Jiri Prochazka defeated Glover Teixeira to become the light heavyweight champion. Following that win, he was supposed to face Teixeira in a rematch, but a shoulder injury forced him out and he had to vacate the light heavyweight title.
Jamahal Hill fought and defeated Teixeira for the vacant title in January 2023. Hill and Prochazka were tentatively penciled in to face each other but Hill tore his achilles and he had to vacate the title. Prochazka fought and lost to Alex Pereira for the light heavyweight title. Hill got his shot at UFC 300 against Pereira and also lost.
UFC 311
We haven’t seen Jamahal Hill since his knockout loss to Pereira back in April. He was supposed to fight over the summer against Khalil Rountree and then Carlos Ulberg, but he had to back out due to an injury. Now, he’ll get his chance to finally get his hands on Jiri Prochazka at UFC 311.
For Prochazka he fought at UFC 300 and stopped Aleksandar Rakic. From there, he got a short-notice second shot against Alex Pereira back in June. Unfortunately, Prochazka was also stopped in this fight. Both men are in the exact same spot coming off title losses to Alex Pereira. Whoever can win in January will find themselves right back in the mix for the light heavyweight title.