Jasmin Frank-USA TODAY Sports
UFC strawweight Angela Hill will make history at UFC VEGAS 10.
At UFC Vegas 10, Angela Hill will serve as one half of the newly scheduled main event between her and fellow strawwieght contender, Michelle Waterson. It will be the first time in UFC history that an African-American woman has headlined a fight card.
Her manager, Brian Butler-Au pointed this out to Hill and she could not be more proud of the accomplishment. Hill spoke about the major feat during a virtual media day ahead of her fight on Saturday night.
“It’s big, and I didn’t even realize how big it was until he mentioned it to me,” said Hill (video via MMA Junkie). “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.”
Although she acknowledges how historic of a moment this is, Hill reminds everyone that this is only the first of many goals she looks forward to accomplishing.
“It’s an honor, said Hill. “It really is and it’s hard for me, myself to be proud of myself because I’m so hard on myself in general. I don’t want to celebrate just being the main event. I want to celebrate winning the main event. I want to celebrate having the first title shot and winning the first title shot as an African-American woman. So, my goals are so much higher than that, that it’s hard to sit back and realize how big of a deal it is, but it is. It’s a big deal.”
The other time Hill made history was back in 2014 when she first signed to the UFC following her stint on the twentieth season of The Ultimate Fighter, better known as The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will Be Crowned. Hill was the first African-American woman to sign with the promotion.
Hill has been known to use her platform to speak out about social justice issues such as racial inequality and bring attention to movements such as Black Lives Matter. It is important work for Hill, who said she is happy to be a part of something meant to bring about change in our society.
Hill (12-8) returns to the Octagon for the fourth time this year after picking up wins over Hannah Cifers and Loma Lookboonmee before losing an unanimous decision to former title challenger, Claudia Gadelha.