Canadian bantamweight Josh Hill competes in his second straight fight outside WSOF when he travels to Galați, Romania on August 31st at RXF 19 against an unknown opponent. Hill (10-1) spoke to MMAOddsBreaker on Episode 118 of The Parting Shot Podcast and discussed a variety of topics. Status of his opponent at RXF 19 and not fighting for a title “I don’t know what exactly what happened, I just know [original opponent Florin Gardan] is out. I didn’t get a reason, they didn’t say he was hurt or anything. They had this one guy in mind, I don’t know if that is happening now and who they are going to give me. I want to fight and not sit on the shelf. My last fight was May 30th, I want to keep active. I’m out here in California [at Team Alpha Male] training for it so I don’t want that to go to waste. It would [have been] cool to get another belt. All I really wanted is to keep active. The belt is just kind of a bonus.” How his fight in Romania was all setup “My striking coach Alin Halmagean actually from Romania, so he kind of had contact for these guys to begin with. They just happened to like the idea and asked my coach if they want to do that. WSOF is not giving me fights, they are keeping me on the shelf. They’re telling me all these dates and they’re not coming through on them. I fought Marlon for the WSOF strap in February and that was the last time I fought for them. I asked to fight on the August card, they said no. I asked for September, they told me October. Now they are telling me they have something in December which I don’t even know if it’s going to happen. I just want to stay active and that’s why I took this fight.” Darren Owen leaving WSOF and only working for WSOF Canada “I haven’t talked to Darren about all that yet, what’s going on. I like Darren, he’s awesome, he’s always been really cool to me and my management. I was hoping he would just kind of take over as the matchmaker of all WSOF, that would be perfect. Looks like he’s taking a step back which sucks for us. I just hope he continues with WSOF Canada because he’s a cool dude.” Lack of fights with WSOF “I’m signed with [WSOF] so I should be fighting with them on the regular. I just think they kind of look out for their own guys and I’m talking about their matchmaker specifically. I’ve been patient with this guy for a while, but now I’m starting to get really agitated with him. I told him before after Marlon I wanted to get another fight. The only reason I fought on the Global Warriors card was because it was close to my home town and I asked for permission to fight. They didn’t have anything lined up for me anyways. I just seen that they put that Russian dude Samir Aliev – who they were talking about me fighting in the fall – they just put him on a card versus some 11-7 guy. I’m kind of pissed off at that. I want to stay active with WSOF, I’m signed with them. But they’re making me go elsewhere and look for fights.” Conflict of interest between Ali Abdel-Aziz and WSOF fighters “Ali is a manager of a whole bunch of fighters that he [does matchmaking for] if that’s not a conflict of interest I don’t know what is. He’s getting all his guys fights and keeping his guys active. When it comes to other guys he’s putting them on the back burner.” Contract status with WSOF “I believe I have two fights left, but at this rate the times are going to elapse before the fights do. If WSOF gives me fights then hell yeah I’m all for them and I want to fight for their title again for sure. If they’re not going to give me fights and keeping me on the back burner, then yeah I’ll do whatever I can do look elsewhere. I’ll talk with Titan, Bellator, ONE or I’ll just keep trying to push for a UFC shot. This year I want to have four fights, I’ve had two so far. This will be three in Romania, I’d like to have one October, November, December, that range.” Coming off a win in his home province of Ontario at Global Warriors FC 2 “It was awesome. I haven’t [fought in Ontario] in three years. I fought a tough guy in [Josh] Rettinghouse, definitely not an easy fight to have in your hometown. It wasn’t like I was beating up a can to get a win for the home crowd. He went five rounds with Moraes as well. It was good, the fight went pretty much exactly how I wanted it to. I wore him down and I got the submission finish which was great because I haven’t had one of those in a while.” Lack of Canadian MMA events “It sucks, its brutal man. I’ve got a lot of buddies that are training and starting to lack on their training because they’re kind of getting down not having fights. That’s a big problem. It’s always fun going to the gym training and what not, but it’s so much better when you have something to train for. There really isn’t that many options here. Global Warriors, I hope they continue to put on shows like they did. I know their show was a success. So we need more of that happening. If we could get a show every two months or something, that would be great.” Update on another Global Warriors event “Last time I talked to [promoter Garnet Ace] he said they are just waiting on money back from the commission. They said the promotion was a success [and] they wanted to do another one. I know he said he wanted to do one in the fall, I’m not sure if that’s a go or not. But I hope it does.” Thoughts on Marlon Moraes defeating Sheymon Moraes at WSOF 22 “I watched it closely because I was hoping to fight the winner of it. Sheymon looked good I thought, he looked really relaxed in there against his biggest test to date. He’s got really nice elbows but he’s really flat footed and he doesn’t bounce around a lot. Not quite a whole lot of movement and Marlon was the one that was moving a lot like he usually does. They had some really good exchanges, it looked like Marlon was using his uppercut a lot more. I think he hit him with a left hook and he dropped him. I knew once it hit the ground, Marlon would have the advantage for sure. Actually I called that I said Marlon submission second round, but I think he got him in the third.” Thoughts on the Rousimar Palhares controversy with Jake Shields at WSOF 22 “Originally we wanted to have him on [Titan FC 34] and he had an opportunity to do some pro wrestling in Japan or something like that. Obviously we’re not going to hold anyone back to make any extra money. We’ll have him on a card soon, before the end of the year for sure.” Thoughts on team-mate T.J. Dillashaw defeating Renan Barao again at UFC on FOX 16 “That was awesome man. I called it, I thought he would beat him up even worse than the first fight and that’s exactly what happened. TJ’s movement, footwork, his angles are really hard to deal with. Barao is a very big bantamweight and he’s very slow. He’s very flat footed and more Thai style. I think that TJ was really in Baraos head. I think that after first fight with TJ, it messed Barao up. Even when Barao fought my teammate Mitch Gagnon, I don’t think he looked the same as he used to. He looked really slow and kind of fatigued and same thing in this fight. We’ll see if he can bounce back from it, it’s a tough loss for him.” How this fight ends on August 31st “Whoever gets in the cage with me, this fight ends with me finishing him early. I’m going to go in there, showcase all my skills and get that finish.” You follow Josh on Twitter @gentlemanjhill You can listen to the full audio version of this interview on Episode 118 of The Parting Shot Podcast below (35 mins in)
