Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill, in Manhattan to attend UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, found himself and his team trapped in the midst of a pro-Palestinian rally in Midtown on Friday.
Hill, who was in a van with his management team and others on Friday, was surrounded by protesters that were involved in a march demanding a ceasefire in Gaza in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
The van was at the intersection of 41st St. and Seventh Avenue when they were trapped by protesters, which led to Hill posting his concern on Instagram.
“[We’re] trying to leave downtown,’’ Hill said in a video. “Our bus is being attacked right now by something, some protest or something that’s going on. They’re throwing, they’re breaking our windows, and all this and that… If any of my people down here downtown and you really got me… come get these people up off our bus.”
Hill’s manager, Brian Butler, wrote on Instagram: “This could have escalated very badly. This was a sliver of a hair away from being catastrophic.”
Protesters were able to open the door of the van, but the driver closed the door before anyone else could enter.
“People were saying, ‘Go, step on the gas. Step on the gas.’ People started trickling over because we were at the very front,” Butler told MMA Junkie. “I think they were curious because it was a big Sprinter van, so they started coming up and putting their signs and stuff up on the window. Then they got a look inside and they could see it was UFC security in there, and they were like, ‘Oh, UFC people.’ Then they started saying stuff like, you know, just mob mentality stuff. Nothing other than that sheer energy that was going on. It was like, ‘UFC people are bitches,’ UFC people are this and that.”
The comments infuriated Hill, according to Butler.
“Jamahal started seeing red, so it was an issue trying to get him calmed down,” Butler said. “But it started escalating pretty quickly. … It went from zero to having the whole vehicle surrounded and banging on it. The windows started breaking, and then Jamahal said he saw someone pull out a knife and they slashed all our tires. It could have been a very bad situation, but it ended well.”
The protest, at one point, reached Grand Central Station and caused it to be shut down.
Hill, who is recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon, is expected to attend UFC 295 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
The main event is Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira for the vacant light heavyweight title.
Hill vacated the belt due to a ruptured Achilles tendon and is in line to meet the winner of Saturday’s match.
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