Strawweight veteran Angela Hill answered questions from the press at the official UFC Vegas 73 media day ahead of her main …
yo yo yo so uh as you saw to stop by for the extra tests yet post some pictures like that oh I’m not standing at the uh at the fighter Hotel so I’m dodging hiding under the ring you know I love it listen oh this wasn’t anticipated to be a main event but it is a main event now I guess what’s the feel ahead of you know being the headliner again uh excitement you know it’s been a long time since uh since I was able to do it for the first time uh and that was also kind of last minute but just the fact that I get the sign poses with my name on it again I get to write some wrongs from that night um I really feel like that fight could have been mined definitively and I’ve been working towards being a better fighter since that last Main Event so I don’t know it feels like a full circle moment and I really feel like it’s gonna be my night to put on the show was there anything you took out of the experience because we wonder like is there added pressure just I mean even if it’s just within yourself not that anything puts on you you know what I mean but you feel like you got to do something extra special I mean did was that a reality and is there anything you took out of that experience um just being the main event yeah from the last one yep uh no I don’t think so I think uh it was a rough one because uh I did a black lives matter piece with ESPN um coming up to that fight and I literally had to stay off of my phone for two weeks because you know the the internet is gonna internet um so I felt like there was a little bit of pressure with that um and I don’t know it I I felt like I had the fight right there and then I hesitated a little bit and it cost me a couple rounds and um ever since that fight I’ve just been working on not being afraid to go to the ground like not making it like the floor is lava kind of that’s what every fight Camp had been up to that point don’t let it take you down don’t let it take you down well this is the ultimate don’t let it take you down but I’m like if she takes me down I’ll get up you know I could defend a choke for a couple minutes I’ll be all right so uh I really feel like uh fights like that fights like my one again Savannah have uh just made me answer those those weaknesses that I have in my fight game and become a much stronger fighter everywhere especially on the ground but so when they give you the matchup is there any party that’s like ah come on you know like I gotta do this again or do you almost welcome that like oh this is my chance to prove that I can go you know against this type of grappling specialist well I mean you see you’re striking and you can kind of see why I was excited um I think I think I probably did the same thing that she did when she’s like oh well if you see her grappling I’m like oh there’s a lot I can do with the way she comes forward with the way she uh doesn’t care about her chin being thrown in the air so there’s a lot of areas that I feel like I can capitalize on and I don’t feel like she has as many um opportunities to capitalize on my mistakes and I’ve just been working really hard at fixing them and I don’t feel like she’s been fixing hers she’s just been trying to do more Jujitsu um so if anything I think fight IQ wise I think my experience in there and being put up against the tough Grapplers my entire career has prepared me for this so at this point in your career do you like specialize anything in training camp like when the match-up comes around you’re like well we got to do even more Jujitsu than we were doing or is it more like let’s just focus on doing what we do best um I was already doing a lot of Jiu Jitsu after the Vienna fight um even and before that but I just wanted to really get to the bottom of why I couldn’t get out of certain positions and I went and competed a bit and I started to see a pattern of oh okay I just need a couple more escapes I need I just need to be a little more aggressive with this and that and a lot of the escapes that you have in MMA don’t work against high-level Jiu Jitsu people you have to learn high level Jiu Jitsu to fight a high level Jiu Jitsu fighter so that’s what I’ve been doing and I really just feel like man I feel like I’m I’m getting Leaps and Bounds better every month I’m doing privates with my Jiu Jitsu coach Johnny I’m doing privates with Justin Flores who’s Ronda Rousey’s or Judo clothes I’m I’m doing classes with Phil Davis and I’ve just I’ve kind of attacked off season as if I was a Grappler in the UFC so when I do get to punch things I’m like oh cool it’s like a break day this is the off day I get to hit pads I get to I get to spar the best kickboxes in the world because I’m I did that for this Camp too um and uh I just I I know just uh just the fact of the people who I can hang with I know that I’m one of the best fighters in the world and this is definitely a fight where I can just be like hey look at me I’m one of the greatest now you gotta recognize it that’s awesome you know a veteran of the game at this point you kind of been in the rankings out of the rankings back in again I mean she’s got a pretty big you know nice number next to her name do you think about like where this puts you where you stand where you are do you worry about those things or think about them at all nah the rankings are like the the rankings have always disrespected me every time one of you guys say oh you’re gonna 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 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 uh what’s undeniable is my resume and if I can get some more finishes under my belt if I could get some more tkos some more just like statement making things uh though the fight uh zounding Yan had last a couple weeks ago that was really motivating too because that was another one of those fights it was super competitive it could have gone either way and now she’s starching girls you know and a lot of what she did in that fight are things that I worked on in my Camp so 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 and hopefully it all comes to fruition on Mackenzie Darren’s face this Ideal World is it you know striking Clinic you go out there and just Muay Thai destruction or like is there part of you like I kind of want this to hit the ground just for a minute to show that like I can hang down there dude it’d be so dope to just sub the out of her like I I don’t feel like it’s in the it’s like totally impossible but I do know that I can’t be silly I have to play it safe I have to just keep it in the world where I’m most comfortable punching her kicking or draining her gas tank but man if if it’s there I’m not gonna run away from it I still uh to this day I still regret not jumping on top of Claudia gadelia when I dropped her and maybe then that was a horrible idea but now totally could have jumped on her ass so I I just feel confident wherever the fight goes but yeah if I could just get a flying knee knockout wobbler a bit then jump on the rear naked you know I might take the sub before the TKO Angela it’s kind of weird um that your last two opponents were fighting each other two fights underneath you a little bit I’m like what are you guys doing um it’s weird but it’s also kind of cool because I I think before I had this wall up where I was just like everyone else in my weight class but um you know I once I started training outside of uh outside of a big gym I was like you know it’s actually helpful to train with girls in my weight class and yeah maybe they get a little Intel but it’s helping me become a much better fighter so I’ve reached out to loopy uh after we fought I reached out to Dakota after we fought she actually came through to camp and put me in a bunch of arm bars and helped me work on my escapes and that was like a horrible experience for me but you know um the next generation of straw weights is is coming through and they’re really good at a lot of stuff they’re not just good at one thing so I think it’s going to be a hell of a fight between the two of them and I don’t know maybe it makes sense now that a main event the fact that these two fought me and now they’re fighting each other and then there’s a whole storyline there I don’t know maybe maybe one of them would come up into the cage after I win or I don’t know but um no I think it’s cool and I I think if anything it’s a win-win for me because whoever wins I’m gonna look better with uh you know for beating them speaking of your Division I just got announced way leads fighting Amanda Lemos I just wanted to know like your quick thoughts on that and who you got it yeah y’all know how I feel about limos but uh she she has that one one hitter quitter she she likes to save up her energy and and put everything into one hit and she’ll do that maybe three times around I think uh her fight with Marina was the most impressive because she showed um she she’s got ground to um personally I felt like I out grappled her in our fight and uh and she didn’t want to go to the ground with me after after she jumped on top of me so she I almost caught a gedellia in her or whatever she was gonna do um but uh yeah really I just feel like has better um control of our energy better Energy Management she’s very technical and uh if as long as she doesn’t get rocked like she did in the Rose fight I think she can work her way to a to a finish or a decision and then finally any update on the Barney Hill documentary are you gonna get in that no they have ghosted me I’m still waiting I’m still waiting uh and keeping my keeping my dad you know waiting to see if they’re gonna hit him up or anything but it’s really my dad’s story he’s my uh he’s my grandfather’s son uh he almost went on the trip with them when they got abducted so I always thought it would be cool for one of these people who like to talk about the Barney Hill abduction to hit him up and get his perspective on it because he was a teenager when it happened now he’s about uh he’s he’s is he 80 yet oh my God he’s he’s getting up there I mean it makes sense like why why why wouldn’t they want to talk speak with him you know why wouldn’t they you tell me the truth is out there good point good point thanks for taking the time you’ve always been driven self-motivated but does it give you just like an extra pep in your step that the UFC got behind you guys and said okay that’s the fight we’re gonna make the main event yeah definitely I think I think a lot of it has to do with uh McKenzie’s Instagram followers hey you know the the IG count but uh aside from that they know it’s gonna be a banger of a fight they know it’s going to be exciting um they know people are going to tune in to see what happens and it’s one of those pivotal fights in the strawweight division despite what my ranking is everyone knows I could win any fight in any time against anyone who’s in the top ten so this is one of those moments and if anything make giving me that call and trusting me to seal the show and and put on a stellar performance just puts a little action window myself for sure I’m going there I feel special I feel I feel like they they’re happy that I’m here and I think a lot of times especially after a loss or two you can feel like no one wants to see you fight you can feel like you know a piece of crap but uh a one-two I’m on a two fight win streak gonna make it three and I think this is an awesome stage to do it on how excited were you when they said okay it’s going to go from three to five and you’re like oh I can do five no problem I did that with Michelle Waterson it’s not yeah there’s nothing you guys can throw at me that would be a surprise at this point right that was kind of that was part of my stipulation I’m like I might not do it if it’s three you know I might say no but uh right before I told Mick yes I was like is it five and he’s like yeah and I’m like oh perfect let’s do it so yeah it’s I I’m happy with five I can I have cardio for days that’s the one thing that uh people know about me is that if if it went 10 Rounds I’m still bouncing on my toes at the end of that so I’m good to go excellent well can’t wait to see it and good luck on Saturday thank you hi Angela from a Outsider looking in your support system seems to be very palpitating how has it shaped you as a woman and as a professional fighter palpitating is that a good thing a really good thing okay [Laughter] um it’s moving even to take a look at your Instagram it seems as though we don’t see enough to know exactly how much you’re loved behind the scene ah so once again your support system how has it shaped you as a woman and as a professional fighter and uh I really try to put out the energy that I want to get back and that’s anyone that’s that’s someone who doesn’t know who I am someone who’s never going to see me again um and I feel like that’s worked out for me in general and uh when people put on this Persona of being an I I don’t know how they can live with themselves because you know it’s it’s a lonely world it’s a sad world and and if anything I have had a very uh palpitating uh support throughout my career I probably use that wrong um you know every every coach that I’ve had every training partner that I’ve had uh they’ve always known that I had that little something and if anything it was just them convincing me that I had it like when I started Muay Thai I was doing it for fun and my coach had to convince me that I was actually beating people up and I should try to do it for real and um every time I get a little further with with all the strides that I’ve made in grappling my coaches are convincing me hey you’re doing really good like you are out grappling people you shouldn’t be able to and um you know it’s really nice to have that support it’s really nice to have like that Family behind me um right now I’m I’m kind of on my own gym wise but I have maybe five or six different gyms that I go to a lot in San Diego and they’re all 100 behind me um and uh you know we have a strong women’s team too out there we’re all from different gyms but we meet up and we Spar hard and we share information and we help each other out um and it’s really been invaluable during my career and I think at every point of my career I had something like that you know when I when I first started a Muay Thai when I moved to North Carolina for a bit when I uh when I first got to Alliance MMA and then when I left and started doing my own thing I always had those brothers and sisters that see me sweating every day and they’re just like yeah you deserve it you deserve to get whatever you get because you’ve been working your ass off to get it so I don’t know I think I think if anything when I retire I hope that people will be able to look at my career and they’ll be able to say no matter what no matter how much you have to go through hard work pays off and that’s what I’ve just stuck to every day thank you and you did use the word correctly yay he’s in it all week now good thanks guys