09-05-2025
Jamahal Hill details 'weird' interaction with Khalil Rountree ahead of UFC Azerbaijan
Jamahal Hill details 'weird' interaction with Khalil Rountree ahead of UFC Azerbaijan
Jamahal Hill's only recent interaction with opponent Khalil Rountree was an awkward one.
Light heavyweights Hill (12-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) and Rountree (13-6 MMA, 9-6 UFC) square off June 21 in the UFC on ABC 8 headliner at Baku Crystal Hall in Baku.
The former title challengers had a recent run-in at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas which threw off Hill.
"The only time that we did have an interaction, it was weird – but we don't really talk," Hill told The Schmo. "I was in the PI. I say what's up to anybody. I'll say hi to anybody. Then I walked into the locker room and he's just like, 'Man, you really don't like me, do you?' I was like, what? 'You really don't like me?' I was like, 'I don't even know you. We haven't even had a conversation.'
"We haven't had anything. It's almost like he's got to build me up as this villain or this person that he hates in his head to fight, which is fine with me. But whenever you start putting the energy off to the UFC staff and sh*t like that, like, 'Oh, we can't be around each other or something's going to happen,' you're not going to do sh*t. So what's the point of that? It's weird to me."
Both fighters will look to rebound from stoppage losses. Hill was finished by Jiri Prochazka via TKO at UFC 311 in January, whereas Rountree is coming off a TKO to Alex Pereira in their title fight at UFC 307 last October.
