The UFC’s light-heavyweight title is once again vacant after reigning champion Jamahal Hill announced he would be relinquishing the belt after sustaining a ruptured Achilles tendon that will require surgery.
Hill broke the news in a video posted to his YouTube channel late Thursday but didn’t say how the injury occurred. According to a report from MMAFighting, Hill suffered the injury in Las Vegas last weekend while participating in a game of pickup basketball.
The 32-year-old became champion at UFC 283 in January when he defeated Glover Teixeira, winning the title that had been previously vacated by former champion Jiri Prochazka late in 2022 after Prochazka suffered a serious shoulder injury.
That Hill-Teixeira matchup was only made a title fight after Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev fought to a split draw at UFC 282 when the vacant belt was on the line.
Hill had been waiting to defend his title against Prochazka whenever Prochazka was ready to return.
“I was given an opportunity. I was given a blessing that came at the misfortune of someone else,” Hill said. “Jiri Prochazka was the champion, he suffered an injury as these things happen and he gave up the belt and allowed for others to not hold the division up, to keep the division moving forward, to keep entertaining, to make sure the people had a champion and I’ll do the same.
“Right now the biggest thing is focussing on my recovery, focussing on getting back to 100 per cent. I need to take some time to focus on my health and make sure that I’m 100 per cent and I’m the fighter that everybody knows who I am and that I’ve been since I stepped into this and in order to do that I need to focus on healing and getting ready and rehabbing.”
Hill added the UFC has ensured him that he will compete for the title in his first fight back after recovering.
On Friday, Hill and Prochazka wrote one another on social media in an exchange of sportsmanship.
This is in fact the fourth time this division’s title has been vacated in the past five years. In addition to Hill and Prochazka, former two-weight champ Daniel Cormier gave up the belt in 2018 after winning the heavyweight title and permanently moving up in weight, and Jon Jones relinquished the belt in 2020 after re-winning it in 2018 and defending it three times. Jones’s reasons for vacating were partly due to a contract dispute while also making the decision to move up to heavyweight.
It’s unclear at this time how the UFC plans on sorting out the title picture.
Blachowicz is set to welcome former middleweight champion Alex Pereira to the 205-pound division in the UFC 291 co-main event at the end of the month.
Ankalaev is the No. 2-ranked contender and currently without an upcoming opponent. Prochazka has said he is hopeful to return to action at some point later in 2023, plus top-five contender Aleksandar Rakic is also on the mend after tearing his ACL in 2022.