When Angela Hill makes the walk to the Octagon against Michelle Waterson in the main event of UFC Vegas 10, she will be the first African-American woman to headline a show.
It is no doubt a big deal for Hill and she says she is proud and honored to be the first.
“It’s big, and I didn’t even realize how big it was until (my manager) mentioned it to me,” Hill told reporters during her UFC on ESPN+ 35 virtual media scrum (via MMAJunkie). “I think in a time like this, people need heroes people need someone to look up to, someone to root for. And just the fact that this hasn’t happened yet is indicative of the fact that it is important.
“A lot of people would say, ‘Why does it matter?’ But if it doesn’t matter to you, that’s OK, but it does matter to the fans who see that and they’re like, ‘Finally, finally, we have some representation. Finally we have a face in this sport that we love, and we’ve been waiting for so long.’”
It also means more to Angela Hill given what is going on in the United States with the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Its really cool to be a part of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Hill explained. “It’s really important, and I think people try to pretend that it’s not and call it things that it isn’t because it’s hard to look at the violence. It’s hard to say there’s something wrong when you haven’t experienced it yourself.
“I think the reason it’s so important to Black people is because they’ve all had moments where they felt in danger or they felt they weren’t considered as human as their white counterparts, and it’s not something that disappeared when (former President Barack) Obama got elected. It’s not something that disappeared once cops got body cams. It’s something that’s still hurting the community right now. I think with the pandemic that’s going on right now, with just everything just being so divisive, it’s really brought it to light and made people pay attention to how hard the struggles are and the fact there needs to be some change.”
Angela Hill is coming off a controversial decision loss to Claudia Gadelha in May and is looking to return to the win column against Michelle Waterson.