Jamahal Hill slams Khalil Rountree Jr. getting title shot after doping suspension: ‘Terrible for the sport’ 

Ex-UFC champion Jamahal Hill was not joyful to listen to the information that Khalil Rountree Jr. was getting a title shot towards Alex Pereira in October.

The announcement was made on Friday by UFC CEO Dana White with Pereira vs. Rountree headlining UFC 305 in Salt Lake Metropolis. The struggle serves as Roundtree’s first motion since December 2023 because of a suspension handed down earlier this 12 months that prevented him from combating Hill on the scheduled UFC 303 card in June.

The penalty got here from the Fight Sports activities Anti-Doping Company — a bunch based and funded by the UFC — after Rountree admitted use of a banned substance that he claimed he by accident ingested from considered one of his dietary supplements. Proper now, Rountree really stays on suspension from the Nevada Athletic Fee as a result of he was scheduled to struggle there in June, though it’s seemingly he’ll have an adjudication settlement in place on the subsequent assembly set for Aug. 29.

Regardless, Hill doesn’t like the truth that Rountree is getting rewarded with a title shot after serving a suspension for utilizing a banned substance.

“Can’t consider what I simply noticed introduced!” Hill wrote on Twitter. “So a man pulls out of a contender struggle due to [a] failed drug take a look at for a banned substances and will get rewarded with a title shot?!!

“That is horrible for the game and makes the rankings fully pointless!”

Rountree’s most up-to-date efficiency got here in a knockout over one-time UFC title challenger Anthony Smith, which marked his fifth win in a row general. That led to the matchup being booked towards Hill however finally neither fighter really ended up showing on the cardboard.

After he was pulled from his struggle towards Hill at UFC 303, Rountree posted a prolonged message accepting accountability for his error, which additionally concerned him notifying the promotion about ingesting the banned substance previous to a optimistic drug take a look at.

In the end, Roundtree solely confronted a two-month suspension, however his penalty from the Nevada Athletic Fee may probably be extra extreme. He’s already sat out below a short lived suspension for longer than the UFC’s anti-doping coverage required.

Nonetheless, none of it sits properly with Hill, who reigned as UFC gentle heavyweight champion till he suffered a torn Achilles that compelled him to relinquish the belt whereas he recovered from surgical procedure to restore the injury completed. In his return in April, Hill suffered a knockout loss to Pereira earlier than he tore a meniscus in his knee that prevented him from competing as scheduled in June.