EA Sports adds newly-crowned Jamahal Hill and another to roster before UFC 5 release

EA Sports UFC 4 has added two new fighters to the roster, including newly crowned light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill.

Hill and women's strawweight contender Amanda Lemos were added to the game's roster on January 19. While 'Sweet Dreams' is a four-star rated fighter in the game, Lemos boasts a four-and-a-half-star rating. Both fighters' striking stats are expectedly high, considering they are known for their fight-ending power.

Amanda Lemos is riding a two-fight win streak in the strawweight division, comprising finishes against Michelle Waterson and Marina Rodriguez. Lemos currently occupies the No.3 spot in the 115-pound rankings.

At the recently concluded pay-per-view in Brazil, Jamahal Hill secured a dominant unanimous decision win against Glover Teixeira to win the light heavyweight championship, with all three judges scoring the bout 50-44 in favor of the American.

Hill notably became the first Dana White's Contender Series alumn to win a title. He will defend his title later this year with former champion Jiri Prochazka, former title challenger Magomed Ankalaev and middleweight king Alex Pereira the likely candidates.

While Pereira will likely rematch former foe Israel Adesanya, Ankalaev's next move remains unknown. Given Hill's recent back-and-forth with Prochazka on social media, this appears to be the next 205-pound title fight.

In December of last year, three up-and-coming fighters – unbeaten welterweight Shavkat Rakhmonov, top-ranked bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili, and Polish lightweight Mateusz Gamrot – were added to the game's roster.

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When is the expected release of UFC 5?

Despite there being no official confirmation from EA regarding the release of UFC 5, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to expect a new game in the series to drop sometime this year, going by Electronic Art's trend of releasing a new UFC game every two years.

According to a tweet by Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, the fifth edition of the game is expected to come out in the summer of 2023.

Also, a few job postings by Electronic Arts on Linkedin searching for people to work on the new game have more or less confirmed that it is in fact under development.