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Paul Craig and Jamahal Hill were moments away from laying their hands on each other at the fighter hotel ahead of UFC 263.
An unpleasant altercation outside the UFC octagon is an ever-present hanging sword during adrenaline-filled fight week. UFC 263 fight week has been especially tense. Paul Craig and Jamahal Hill almost came to blows while completing media obligations after another altercation between Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori made the rounds in the past couple of days.
A video uploaded by one of the onlookers shows Jamahal Hill and Paul Craig engaged in a tense face-off that would probably have ended up in a fistfight had the two not been separated in time.
No.14 ranked UFC light heavyweight Paul Craig (14-4-1D MMA, 6-4-1D UFC) will fight No.15 ranked Jamahal Hill (8-0-1NC MMA, 4-0-1NC UFC) in the opening bout of the UFC 263 main card on June 12, 2021.
Paul Craig's last fight was a TKO win against former divisional champion Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua at UFC 255 in November 2020. The fight was a rematch of their December 2019 meeting that resulted in a split-decision draw.
Paul's opponent Jamahal Hill is an undefeated prospect who is currently riding a four-fight winning streak in the UFC. Hill last defeated former interim light heavyweight title challenger Ovince St-Preux in December 2020.
Paul Craig shares his thoughts on the altercation with Jamahal Hill ahead of UFC 263
While speaking to journalists during UFC 263 media day, Paul Craig addressed questions related to the viral video of his altercation with Jamahal Hill. Craig stated that Hill lost control of his emotions while performing media obligations at the fighter hotel. Craig added that Hill walked up to him and started the unpleasant interaction and admitted to having been surprised by Hill's conduct.
"He is very emotional. I was outside signing posters so he came up to me and was asking me if I was on drugs. Yeah, it was totally like (shrugs)... You can watch the video. It's on there. Somebody had caught it. One of the coaches caught it and posted it all over social media. So it's just this weird interaction where I'm kind of taken aback and he's wasting time to come over to me while we're doing media like, 'get up here man'. Conduct yourself in an orderly fashion please," Paul Craig said.
