Should Hill successfully navigate Saturday’s bout and emerge with a second straight victory, he should find himself in a position to take on another Top 10 opponent in his second start of 2022, and with plenty more people talking about him as a dark horse contender in the light heavyweight division.
Jonathan Pearce
Like Hill, Pearce is also a member of the DWCS Class of ’19, graduating a couple weeks ahead of Saturday’s main event combatant following a third-round stoppage win over Jacob Rosales. Three months later, “JSP” made his Octagon debut in Boston, Massachusetts, taking on local favorite Joe Lauzon in a lightweight matchup that he lost in 93 seconds.
Since then, however, Pearce has moved back down to featherweight and posted consecutive victories, collecting a second-round TKO win over Kai Kamaka III in late November 2020 before submitting Omar Morales at UFC 266 last September. This weekend, Pearce looks to make it three in a row against Christian Rodriguez.
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A native of East Tennessee, Pearce trains with the Fight Ready team in Scottsdale, Arizona, which means he’s getting quality work with an assortment of in-house standouts and potentially a number of recent high-profile additions, like flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo. The team has enjoyed strong success over the last few years, as has Pearce, who has collected seven victories in his last eight outings, all by submission.
