She feared she wouldn’t fight until the summer, but a last-second chance to fight Ashley Yoder came up, and Hill, naturally, said yes. The two fought nearly four years ago – a unanimous decision win for Hill – and have become amicable acquaintances since, even considering training together on occasion in southern California. But Hill won’t be holding back when they square off on February 27, and she’s single-minded on the goals set for fight night.
“You don’t want to go 1-1 (against someone),” Hill said. “You want to make a statement. She’s coming after my number, so I definitely want to put in work and finish her if possible, and I feel like I can, so I think this is going to be a great fight to really work on those moves that I’ve been working on since my Michelle fight and just put some respect on my name. Get some of that confidence going and really just show people how good I am now.”
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Hill was particularly inspired by Max Holloway’s performance in January against Calvin Kattar, lauding the Hawaiian’s ability to land a high volume of strikes over the course of the fight and put any doubts to rest. Coming off a pair of decision losses, Hill is hoping a similar uptick in volume, as well as a diversification in her attack, helps her pull away on the judges’ scorecards if they are necessary.
“If I won those fights (against Gadelha and Waterson), I’d be like, ‘Ah, I’m good.’ I’d be chillin’,” she said. “I’d do the same thing the next fight, but those two fights just made me realize I need to start adding more weapons to my game. I get too comfortable in a striking match just because I’m not getting hurt, and I’m hurting them, so I’m like, ‘Oh, obviously I’m winning,’ but when you look at the punch counts, they’re too close. They could be a lot bigger apart. It just made me focus more on maybe getting a takedown. Maybe finishing them or at least threatening it so I can land more punches.
