Las Vegas, NV – Having been in the UFC for so long strawweight Angela Hill is tired of hearing about rankings as she gets set to face Mackenzie Dern in the main event of UFC Vegas 73 on Saturday night.
“The rankings are bullsh*t. The rankings have always disrespected me,” Hill told reporters on Wednesday.
“Every time one of you guys say oh you’re going to be in the rankings, you’re going to be in the top 10. You’re going to be in the top 15 after this fight. Doesn’t happen.”
Hill (15-12) may come off as bitter, but she has a point. She’s defeated some of the best at 115 pounds and has yet to see much traction in the rankings.
“If anything, if I fight someone who has a number by their name, they don’t have a number by their name after I beat them. So I’m not expecting much from the rankings, but what’s undeniable is my resume,” she said.
Hill took a lot of motivation from Xiaonan Yan’s recent victory at UFC 288. Hill had a close fight with Yan in 2019 which she dropped.
“The fight Xiaonan Yan had a couple weeks ago that was really motivating too. That was another one of those fights. It was super competitive, it could have gone either way, and now she’s starching girls. A lot of what she did in that fight are things that I worked on in my camp. I really feel like I’m making the right moves. I feel like I’ve been right there, but I just needed a little extra push in certain areas,” Hill said.
“Hopefully it all comes to fruition on Mackenzie Dern’s face.”
In Dern (12-3) Hill will face a Jiu Jitsu specialist with serviceable striking, but incredibly dangerous on the ground. Hill looks forward to that challenge, and who knows, maybe even pull off a submission of her own.
“Dude it’d be so dope to just sub the sh*t out of her! I don’t feel like it’s totally impossible, but I do know that I can’t be silly. I have to play it safe. Just keeping it in the world where I’m most comfortable. Punching her, kicking her, draining her gas tank,” Hill said.
“Man if it’s there I’m not going to run away from it. If I could just get a flying knee knockout, wobble her a bit, then jump on the rear-naked…I might take the sub before the TKO.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Angela Hill above. She headlines UFC Vegas 73 against Mackenzie Dern on Saturday night.
