The Athletic is honoring Black History Month with a series of stories about pioneering subjects making an impact in sports.
Angela Hill did not know that she was the first African-American woman to fight for the UFC until a reporter asked her about it in 2014.
She didn’t believe him. She was sure it had already happened.
Advertisement
Six years later, the 33-year-old strawweight from Maryland has come to see herself as a bit of a pioneer, a representative for “a small movement,” she said, mostly because this is how fellow fighters, fans and the press view her.
“I’m carrying the torch,” Hill said. “I would’ve thought there would be a lot more pressure in that, but there’s not. I’m just being me.”
Hill’s embrace of the responsibility that comes with being a trailblazer, whether she meant to be or not, has revolved around inspiring young women who look like her and might want to fight but are cautious because MMA has not seemed like space where they can thrive.
“I think a lot of people are surprised that there aren’t that many black women in the UFC, just because there are a lot of black men in the UFC, black champions,” Hill said. “So it’s always kind of surprising that you realize there’s a huge lack of representation with black females.”
As it stands, just five American black women are currently on the UFC roster.
Hill, a notable kickboxer, didn’t see herself as anything other than a hungry fighter when she tried out for “The Ultimate Fighter,” the UFC’s reality-show tournament, in April 2014.
While she staked out the room, Hill saw one fighter, Danielle Taylor, who looked like her.
This was no surprise.
Beyond boxing, as far as Hill was concerned, the scarcity of black women in combat sports was normal.
Throughout her 16-0 kickboxing career, she “didn’t really see too many black women fight. The only woman that I noticed that made a name for herself was Miriam Nakamoto,” a world champion muay Thai fighter from California. Nakamoto also fought four times in MMA but not after 2013.
This was as close as Hill, who’s 11-7 in MMA after scoring a recent knockout win over Hannah Cifers, could get to an inspirational figure when she made the transition to mixed fighting.
Advertisement
“It gave me a little more comfort that I was doing something strange to the people that I knew,” Hill said. “When you do something that’s outside of the box, people question why. So it was cool to see someone like that who had already gotten to that level that I wanted to get to. It was definitely motivation.”
As Hill underwent the audition process for “The Ultimate Fighter,” she noticed that her race never came up.
“I definitely knew that it might give me an edge,” Hill said. “I don’t remember them saying anything, but it was on my mind during the audition process.”
Hill was chosen for the 20th installment of “TUF” — the first season featuring solely women fighters — which went on to crown the UFC’s first strawweight champion.
A newcomer to MMA — Hill had her first pro fight two days before the “TUF” tryout — she was eliminated early in the series’ tournament format against top-seed and eventual champion Carla Esparza. Her presence, though, was meaningful enough for fledgling fighters such as Shana Dobson, who made her amateur debut the following year and in 2017 earned a spot on a subsequent season of “TUF” to become the first black woman in the UFC’s flyweight division.
“I think Angela probably didn’t even realize that she was doing something major by being the first black woman in the UFC,” said Dobson, who came away impressed with how willing Hill was to be herself on the show — and everywhere else.
“She’s got her black hair. Her ‘fro. It’s natural,” Dobson added. “She’s out there, and I love it. I have traditionally African-American hair myself. I have dreadlocks. I started that like a year ago. That was so important to me to represent my black culture, represent my Jamaican culture with that — using the platform that I have, get out there and get exposed to different types of people. Maybe there are people out there who wouldn’t normally be like, ‘I’m a fan of a black girl in the UFC.’ Maybe that is the one connection that they need to make in order to expand their minds in all aspects. So I think that’s dope.”
Advertisement
In the middle of last year, The Undefeated profiled Hill and asked, “Where are the black women in UFC?”
For Hill and some of the women who followed her into the UFC, there’s no simple answer.
“I think a lot of black women are the breadwinners in their family,” Hill told The Athletic. “Or a lot of black women are not encouraged to do something that is so brutal. And it’s just not a thing that has really been seen to be prosperous. I feel like there’s a whole slew of reasons you don’t see black women that often in mixed martial arts.
“You see a lot in boxing. You see a lot in basketball, the WNBA. But when it comes to the more obscure sports, it’s lacking. I think it’s simply a matter of inclusion. A lot of times it’s hard to invest that much money in something that you’re doing just because it’s fun. I was lucky enough to have a little income after college, and that’s kind of what made me pick up muay Thai. I always want to get in shape. I always wanted to know how to fight. And I was a little intimidated by boxing gyms. I went to muay Thai, and I really liked doing it with my husband.”
A fast learner who enjoyed punching people, Hill was 25 when she had her first combat sports fight. There was no thought of making a living from it. This was fun. Exercise, really. She had an office job in an animation studio and needed to find something to get into shape.
“So that was kind of how my journey started,” Hill said. “You see that a lot with women of any race or background. A lot of women started off as a workout, and it just ended up turning into something they wanted to do 24/7. That in itself is one of the reasons you don’t see many black women, because it’s kind of a luxury to be able to go to a gym, to work out, to do these things outside of your daily grind.”
Dobson’s path was not so different.
Advertisement
The 30-year-old flyweight from Maryland spent much of her time growing up playing soccer and idolizing Mia Hamm, the U.S. women’s national team star who won two FIFA World Cup titles.
Dobson tried basketball, but that didn’t work because she always managed to get in foul trouble.
“Basketball wasn’t for me,” Dobson said. “That’s how I should have known I was meant to be a fighter — because I’m actually rough.
“I wanted to stay in shape, so I hit up a kickboxing gym, but I was interested in boxing class. This was so different. I’m just trying this out. And it was so difficult for me.
“It was like I was rebuilding myself, and I thought that was a great project for me. It was so dope. Pretty much it moved really fast from there.
“My coaches at the time just signed me up for my first fight without even asking me. They told me if they didn’t sign me up, I was never going to do it. As soon as I did it I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m addicted to this, standing here in the cage.’ ”
Dobson is 1-2 in the UFC (3-3 overall) and could use a win in her next fight when she meets Brazil’s Priscila Cachoeira (8-3) on Feb. 22 in New Zealand.
Like Hill, Dobson has not encountered many women in the fight game who resemble her.
“Every time I see a black woman in the UFC, I’m like, ‘Oh, who is that?’ ” Dobson said. “You see a familiar face or something like that. I don’t see too many, and I wish there was something that I could do in order for them to get out there. I think first and foremost, start practicing this sport. Obviously, that’s the first step. Just getting into mixed martial arts. You don’t see too many black women in this sport, practicing, taking it seriously. Black people in general.”
This comes with the realization that while she may not have had someone to watch or emulate like Hamm, she could be an example for the next generation.
Advertisement
“It’s funny because black people do not recognize me,” Dobson said. “I’ve not found many unless they’re practicing themselves and they’re familiar with who I am. That’s how I gauge it. We don’t really have too many of us that know this sport.”
If there is a correlation between the audience and the sport’s participants, it may help explain why an influx of black women has not come into the UFC despite increasing fight purses and notoriety for competitors.
Dobson argues that “the more that black people see themselves represented in there, the more they might be compelled to watch.”
“That all goes back to history and just how it’s always been,” she continued. “For black people, it’s always been about basketball or football. There are some sports that haven’t touched that population yet. Another thing that I think MMA could do is try to appeal to those populations, expand who we’re trying to reach. First of all, signing more black athletes. I think that would be very important.”
A Washington Post poll conducted in 2017 prior to Conor McGregor’s boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. indicated that MMA fans are more likely to be white, live in the West and be casual sports fans. The poll also found that African-American audiences do not watch MMA with the same intensity or in the same numbers as they do the sweet science.
Hill chalks up the disconnect that exists between African-American audiences and MMA as a misunderstanding about the elements of the sport.
She remembers watching the UFC with her brothers in the 1990s and thinking something was off when the fighters grappled on the canvas.
“You’ll be like, ‘Oh what’s this stuff?’ ” she said. “That was kind of the mentality, I think.”
“If you don’t like hugging in boxing,” Hill continued, “and you try to watch an MMA fight, you might be very disappointed.”
Advertisement
For more than a decade the UFC has attempted to court black audiences on the male side, which was made easier by the fact that there have been multiple black male stars in the UFC and around the wider world of MMA.
Yet several of the company’s top black fighters, such as former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, have complained about the lack of an effective strategy to build stars among African-American audiences.
“It’s hard to say if there’s more that could be done, or if people just don’t respond to people who look a certain way in MMA,” Hill said. “It’s a complicated issue. I’d love to look at the numbers, open up the books and see if there are things that can be taken advantage of. But it feels right now they are mostly focused on the Mexican market, the Chinese market and the white American market.
“I believe that the UFC is very money-minded, and when it comes to going after certain demographics, they haven’t tried that hard to go after the black demographic in America.”
Black women in the UFC have yet to produce a groundbreaking Serena Williams-type winner who is capable of dominating the competition, turning heads and courting sponsors.
Their chances have been limited to this point considering women are a relatively new addition to the promotion and the subset of black female fighters in MMA appears even more constricted.
“The talent pool is a lot smaller because those girls who would have been good at it aren’t being pushed to do it,” Hill said. “I’m hoping I can encourage a couple people like that who would’ve just kept their office job like I had. People who would stay in that area because it’s more secure. Maybe they plan on doing something that’s more fun, that they’re going to have more passion with, and maybe even make a little more money with. So hopefully I can persuade somebody. I think I already have.”
Advertisement
On the importance of changing that dynamic, Hill, Dobson and 26-year-old UFC-signed strawweight Brianna Van Buren agree that a standard-bearer needs to emerge who can move the needle.
“You have to win,” Van Buren said. “You have to go in there and kick ass. Are you a fighter who wins split decisions, or are you a fighter who goes in there and gets the job done? The crowd loves that.”
Like Hill and Dobson, Van Buren entered MMA via the kickboxing world.
She holds no sentimentality for potential opponents no matter what they look like, and claimed not to be aware that Hill was the first black woman in the UFC until being asked about it for this story.
“Good for her,” Van Buren said. “I have one goal and that’s to get the strap. If she ends up in my way, then she’s in my way. As of right now, I’m not trippin’.
“If anything I’ll be the first African-American (woman) to win the UFC belt, that’s for sure. If we’re talking about that.”
Van Buren does not necessarily identify herself as African-American. Her father, whom she never met, is black, and her mother is Mexican. She explained that she was raised by her mom’s side of the family and feels more connected to her Mexican heritage. It was an uncle, former Strikeforce fighter Anthony Figueroa, who propelled the Californian into MMA.
From a competitive standpoint, Van Buren said, the UFC is objectively colorblind, and she said she has never experienced any sort of negativity around her race.
Holding a 9-2 record and riding six straight victories, Van Buren said she doesn’t care about much other than becoming a major threat at 115 pounds.
Like anyone else in the UFC, she needs pieces to fall in place. That includes staying healthy, which is currently a concern after a lingering hand injury prevented her from fighting in January and will require surgery later this month.
Advertisement
Hill said that she was pulling for Van Buren to do well even though they share the same weight class.
“Me fighting her wouldn’t be part of that,” Hill clarified, “but I think you can fight people you also appreciate. If it happens, it happens.
“Hopefully our paths don’t converge until we’re fighting for big money.”
It turns out that Hill recently took Van Buren’s spot on short notice against Cifers on Jan. 25 to secure her second straight stoppage victory — an important result as the pioneer tries to separate herself, not just from the pack of African-American women in the UFC but from everyone else, too.
“I’m trying to become a legend,” Hill said. “I want to be one of those people. One of those alpha names.
“I’m excited about the future.”
For herself and her peers.
(Top photo of Angela Hill: Josh Hedges / Zuffa)
