Canada’s “Gentleman” Josh Hill is back in action at Bellator 272, looking to bounce back after suffering his first loss in the promotion earlier this year.
It’s a high risk, low reward situation, as Hill is fighting the unranked but still dangerous Jared Scoggins at the event. Scoggins is brother of former UFC athlete Justin Scoggins, and was on a roll, but has not competed since collecting a win under the CFFC banner in 2020.
“I thought about that, because I did ask for a ranked opponent,” Hill admitted when asked about that circumstances surrounding the fight. But after speaking with his management, it was pointed out that “the rankings are kind of all over the place right now. I wanted to fight before the end of the year, I didn’t want to wait too long. I wanted to get back in there and have at least two fights this year.”
Overall, said Hill, “it doesn’t really matter, man. I need to fight, and I need to win. It doesn’t matter if it’s the #2 ranked guy, or an unranked guy. Once we’re in the cage, it’s all the same.”
Hill is one of two Canadian talents on Friday’s card, the other being Jeremy Kennedy. The Hamilton native believes the sport is back on the rise in his home country, after being in a lull the past couple of years.
“Canada at one point I think was a hotbed for MMA, and then it kind of took a dive and sh*t just kind of fell off a little bit,” he opined. “It’s picking back up now, and you’re seeing more and more guys starting to break out, so I think it’s awesome.”
Hill himself has been part of the resurgence of MMA in Canada, working for Ontario-based promotion BTC on the mic. His most recent training camp forced him to be absent from the broadcast of BTC 13 last month, but he plans to get back to work soon. “I was bummed man, I’ve been doing their shows for a while now, and that’s the first one I missed,” he stated. He still got to watch the card, however, and added “I’ll be back on the mic come March with them.”
Watch the full Bellator 272 media day appearance by Josh Hill above. The event takes place this Friday, December 3 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT. More coverage of the card can be found below.
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Kyle Crutchmer
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Kyoji Horiguchi
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Josh Hill
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Jeremy Kennedy
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Jared Scoggins
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Johnny Eblen
