UFC 300 Preview: Light heavyweight title bout between Pereira & Hill highlight strong card

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jim Miller, who stands alone with 26 career victories, entered media room Wednesday wearing a way-too-big UFC 100 jacket with his name on it.

Miller decided this week was a good occasion to bring that jacket out of closet for first time in 15 years. He also competed in UFC 200, and w at 40 is on preliminary card for UFC 300 on Saturday.

“I think I started mentioning fighting on this card in 2020, maybe 2019, and we're here and I'm performing,” Miller said. “When I first started talking about it, it was like, ‘OK, maybe I’ll drag myself to that card,' because that's kind of what I was doing for UFC 200.”

Miller said he didn't have to drag himself to this card after all, that even at an when most fighters long ago stopped entering c, he feels reinvigorated. card itself is strong eugh to get heart beating fast for anyone associated with sport in any form.

Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (9-2) and . 1 contender and former champ Jamahal Hill (12-1) take top heading in a card in which y are among 12 current or former title holders. event also includes 11 fighters who have been on top line of a UFC pay-per-view event, two-time U.S. Olympic judo gold medalist Kayla Harrison and International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Holly Holm.

Hill said he wasn't surprised to be in main event, but was still hored to share top billing in one of more table cards in UFC history.

“I just always planned on being in se moments ever since I was a kid,” Hill said. “From time I was a kid, I always believed whatever I did I was going to be one of best at it. For a time, it was football. For a time, it was basketball. I knew I would be here in moments like this fighting for championships and I would put myself up re with greatest names to ever do it.”

Hill, 32, could have been one wearing championship belt into c, but had to vacate light heavyweight title last July after tearing his Achilles tendon. That meant 36-year-old Pereira took over as champ.

“Who better than Alex to win belt?” said Hill, who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “He's two-division Glory (Kickboxing) champion, two-division UFC champion. Hands of stone, bad man, just a monster, dangerous, scary dude. He's all those things. But watch what I do to him.”

Pereira is a minus-138 favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook , meaning a $138 bet pays $100 if he wins. He is only fighter in UFC history to hold belts in light heavyweight and middleweight divisions.

This is Pereira's fourth UFC pay-per-view event in 16 months.

Should Brazilian prove oddsmakers correct, he could turn his attention to becoming organization's first three-division champion, but said he's t going re yet.

“ next step is to keep defending title unlimited times," Pereira said through an interpreter. "I’m t kind of guy to call out opponents because I’ll fight anybody. I’m champ. I’ll keep defending it.”

co-main event is women's strawweight championship between champion Zhang Weili (24-3) and . 1 challenger and China countrywoman Yan Xiaonan (17-3). Champion Justin Gaethje (26-4) of Denver faces second-ranked fearweight challenger Max Holloway (25-7) of Waianae, Hawaii, for ceremonial BMF title.

HOLM TO ROUSEY: I WAS BETTER

Holm responded to Ronda Rousey’s claim in her book, “Our Fight,” that she went into ir 2015 fight at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, with a concussion.

Holm handed Rousey her first career loss , a shocking result at time given Rousey’s dominance.

“I think it’s just hard for her to really admit that I was just better fighter,” Holm said. “Was she so dominant and a good fighter? One hundred percent. I give her that. But she wasn’t better than me and especially that night.”