Jamahal Hill recently vacated the Light-Heavyweight Championship due to an injury. Jamahal was waiting for Jiri Prochazka to return from his injury to give him a rematch for the belt he never lost. Jamahal won the title in January because Jiri previously vacated the title. Jamahal has never said anything bad about the former champ, just welcomed the challenge of fighting him. Jamahal called Jiri scared once because it was taking forever for Jiri to rehab his injury. Jiri has had nothing but respect for Jamahal as well...until Monday. On Mondays Ariel Helwani always hosts the MMA Hour, this week he had Jiri Prochazka on the show and he bated Jiri into saying exactly what he wanted him to say. Not only did Jamahal expose Ariel who has played favoritism with fighters in the past, but Jiri for being a hypocrite.
Jiri calls Jamahal overweight and ill-advised for playing basketball. First of all, Jamahal doesn't have a fight scheduled, he should be able to do whatever he wants. Second, as of now, the fight isn't scheduled because Jiri isn't ready. Jamahal also exposes Ariel in his video when Ariel literally probes Jiri into saying Alex is the tougher opponent. Jiri speaks in very broken English because it's a secondary language for him, it is tough to gauge what he means sometimes. Jiri was just describing their styles and then Ariel asks "Who's the tougher opponent? Do you think Alex is the tougher opponent?" Jamahal pointed out how when talking to someone who doesn't really speak the same language as you that you can lead them on sometimes. This was a perfect example because that is a sales tactic. Ariel gave Jiri two options, but he wanted him to choose Alex and continue to talk about Alex. Do I think Ariel is intending to diss Jamahal? Not necessarily, I think he wants to create more clips to build hype for Prochazka vs Pereira because that will most likely be the next LHW Title bout. However, it is still inconsiderate of Helwani.
I have been very off the Helwani-train as of late because he highlights Youtubers, and Dart players, and talks soccer more than fighters sometimes and that's not what any fight fan is here for. I understand he gets paid to promote Paul vs Diaz, plus Nate Diaz is half the fight, but Nate isn't a boxer. I'm glad to see more and more fighters start seeing through this new Helwani. I miss the old Helwani. Even Rampage Jackson asked Helwani why he doesn't have more Bellator fighters on his show. It's a good question. I'd rather hear from Umar Nurmagomedov and Yoel Romero than KSI every other week.
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