Angela Hill insists there’s no beef with UFC Vegas 10 opponent Michelle Waterson. None whatsoever.
Forget what you’ve read online. When the pair meet in a historic main event this weekend, it will be business as usual. No beef.
That’s what she told Cageside Press during the event’s media day Thursday. “There’s no beef.” Of course, when Hill noticed Waterson sucking up to UFC President Dana White, and American President Donald Trump, “it just made me want to punch her a little more. I hate suck-ups. I hate when people do that.”
So only a little beef then?
“Michelle has been cool to me, I’ve been cool to her in person,” explained Hill, extra motivated or not. “It’s just going to go down the way it’s always gonna go down.”
Now on her second stint with the promotion, Hill (12-8) will be headlining for the first time this weekend. Roughly six years after the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 20, which introduced her to fight fans.
Hill was a 1-0 fighter at the time, the greenest of the green that season. She beat Emily Kagan at the TUF finale, but two straight losses sent her packing. She landed in Invicta FC, and went on to become a defending champ there.
“It was a weird one, because I lost to two really good opponents, Rose [Namajunas] and Tecia [Torres], when I got cut,” Hill recalled. She went on a four fight win streak after that, winning strawweight gold in Invicta, only to return to the UFC in another lopsided match-up against Jessica Andrade. “Who nobody else wanted to fight,” she noted.
That’s all part of why she is where she is today. Which is 3-1 in her last four fights. “I’ve always been up against the hardest people, and I’ve always done well against them, or been competitive against them,” Hill observed.
As an undefeated fighter in kickboxing, Hill admits that she’s looked at her MMA record, and found it not what she wanted it to be. “It wasn’t what I expected, but I know that I’m stronger for it. I know when I get that title, I’ll be able to keep it, just because I’ve been through so many ups and downs. And I’ve been able to see my mistakes, and fix them.”
Thanks to a busy schedule, Hill has become known as the female Cowboy Cerrone. In fact she holds the record for most fights (6) in the shortest period of time in the UFC, male or female. The fans are starting to appreciate that.
“I think people are finally seeing the value in what I bring to the table, in what I bring to the strawweight division and women’s MMA,” said Hill. “It’s awesome to see it all finally coming to fruition after so much hard work, after just grinding for so many years, and trying to make a name for myself. I feel like it’s finally all happening, and I couldn’t be more excited.”
As of this weekend, Hill will also become the first female African American fighter the headline a UFC card. Of course, Hill has goals of holding the title, so she hasn’t read too much into it, but she admits it’s an important step.
“It’s hard to sit back and realize how big of a deal it is, but it is. It’s a big deal,” she admitted. “If I was sitting on the sidelines, if I was just an MMA fan and I saw that, I would be like ‘aww man go ahead girl, get that win’ because you rarely see a black woman in the position that I am in MMA.” Hill isn’t certain why black women haven’t hit the same heights of their male counterparts just yet, “but I think the public is kind of starved for that demographic to be represented,” she added. “So I’m hoping to bring more eyes to MMA, more fans to MMA. I’m happy to carry the torch.”
UFC Vegas 10 takes place this Saturday, September 12 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card airs live on ESPN+ (TSN in Canada).
