Angela Hill is one of just a handful of UFC athletes (alongside Sam Alvey and Cowboy Cerrone) to have competed inside the octagon six times in the span of twelve months.
In actual point of fact, it’s strawweight Hill (12-7) who holds the UFC record for the most amount of fights in the shortest amount of time. Her six-pack was spread out over the course of just 337 days.
Speaking to Cageside Press at Thursday’s UFC on ESPN 8 virtual media day, she explained why fighting at that pace works for her.
“It just always felt at the beginning of my career that I maybe did a little too much too soon. So this is my way of bridging that gap,” revealed Hill. “And being able to, I guess just feel as comfortable as the girls who had a long amateur MMA career, had a long career before they got into the UFC. This is my way of just kind of equaling that playing field and and just being more comfortable in there.”
Comfortable is a good way to describe how Hill has looked lately. She’s won three straight fights, with two stoppages in that stretch. When she joined the UFC for her first stint in 2014, she was the greenest fighter in the fledgling 115lb division. After an appearance on The Ultimate Fighter 20 and a 1-2 stint, she was cut, and sent down to the minors in a sense — going to Invicta FC to hone her skills. She won a championship there, and since her return in 2017 has looked a different fighter.
Still, taking what amounts to a fight every other month has to add up, right? Well, Hill’s not worried about burning herself out.
“Right now I think my body will tell me when I need to slow down, and so far I’ve been fresh. I felt fresh every fight camp. Even when I jump in with only a couple weeks’ notice, I still feel pretty fresh just because I train a lot. I train hard and I stay active in the gym,” Hill said.
“So right now I my body hasn’t told me to slow down but, I’ll definitely listen to it, especially as I start to get a little older.” Hill even went so far as to say that she’s more likely to get hurt when she’s not fighting — although that tends to arise from doing “dumb stuff in the gym,” she admitted.
Against Claudia Gadelha this weekend in Jacksonville, Florida, Hill has one of the biggest tests of her career. And in the wild and wacky strawweight division, it’s a fight with possible title implications.
“I think right now the strawweight division has been turning over a lot,” Hill suggested. “I don’t remember how many fights Weili [Zhang] won before she got a title shot, but it wasn’t that many [in the UFC], at least not that many ranked opponents that she beat. So I feel like a win over Claudia is gonna shoot me up to the top.” And that win, added Hill, “would be a great way to argue that I deserve a title shot.”
