Fight Study 76 – Hill vs. MMA Culture (transcript) (Patreon)

We had a historic UFC event this past Saturday as the UFC accidentally had the first-ever headliner with an African American woman. It was Michelle Waterson vs. Angela Hill in a five-round main event, and this only happened because the headliner between Thiago Santos and Glover Teixeira was canceled due to Teixeira testing positive for COVID-19.

You know, being a conscientious MMA fan, you get embarrassed by the sport almost every day. Angela Hill, as the headliner, brought out the worst racism in MMA I've seen. EVER. We got a glimpse of the racism Serena Williams faces, but supercharged by MMA culture. Angela Hill is actually named after Black American revolutionary and communist Angela Davis. Similar to her namesake, she has been the most vocal on the UFC roster as far as anti-Black racism, Black Lives Matter, police brutality, and racial inequality. She recently did a video interview for ESPN about some of these issues, and it had four times the downvotes than upvotes. I only bring this up to illustrate that this has been the ratio of hate Hill has received since she's been on The Ultimate Fighter and it has only gotten worse during this fight week. Several of us in MMA media tweeted out our support for Hill, which got more hate than any of our previous MMA tweets. The attacks got so bad that some MMA media members made their online accounts private, and one had to leave social media altogether.

Hill isn't the biggest name in MMA, so why did it get so bad for her? First of all, she's not only Black, she's a woman. That automatically doubles the racism because it's racism plus misogyny. This is so commonplace, there's a term for it, it's misogynoir. Even if you track implicit bias, look at how often Black women are called females not just by fans but even by the media? Think of how bad it sounds if you referred to someone as a female Jew or Asian female. Yet Black female is the norm. Even for you listening, Black female probably raised the fewest hairs on the back of your neck.

To explain it simply, women are humans; "female" is just a gender without a species. It could apply to animals, plants, and even electronic parts. A dog can't be a woman, but a dog can be female. Woman means human, female doesn't. So you can think about the history of this term and this subtle everyday dehumanization.

While you're at it, why don't you think about the history of the term "bitch."

Somehow, we're aware of these grammar rules when it comes to men, and sometimes for non-Black women. 

Listen, in the past, I've been guilty of this myself until I listened not only to Black feminists but also to scientists and copy editors. 

I remember when I was thinking about this and having it explained to me felt so silly because I was aware of this for men, so what was up with this blind spot? You don't know what you don't know and often we aren't aware of our own internalized bigotry.

Misogynoir is as normal as air, so we don't see it, we don't hear it. Then for Hill, if this level of racism is the norm, it only got worse from there.

Then the second part of why it got so bad for Hill, who isn't a big name in the UFC is also just that. MMA is very top-heavy, even for many conscientious MMA fans. Left politics is bottom-up, so we care more for the working class of MMA, the prelim fighters, the smaller name fighters. Like Hill. But there aren't enough Leftists in the world, let alone Leftist MMA fans. So since even the good fans don't care as much about the non-stars, the ratio skews to the rightwing hardcores. Or if some conscientious MMA fans happen to see casual shade and racism for Hill, they might not care as much because she's not a star. Through this MMA specific example, you see the difference between liberal and the Left. Liberal might care about race, but they don't necessarily care about class. So a lesser-known figure won't get their attention. For the Left where it's supposed to be race AND class, we have to put the most vulnerable voices at the forefront. Theoretically, anyway. Misogynoir is an issue also for the Left. But this is how MMA becomes a microcosm of politics literally on PEDs.

It also didn't help that Michelle Waterson is such a Rightwing darling who trains at Jackson-Wink, a school with ties to not only Qanon but far-right militias. Waterson herself tries to brand herself as kid-friendly, to appeal outside of MMA to the mainstream so she tries to take the Michael Jordan approach of, everyone buys merch. As a person of color, this sets a contrast between herself and Hill. Waterson has been vocal in support of the police, plays company woman to Dana White, especially in his endorsement of Donald Trump, she often spouts jingoist patriotism, anti-Asian humor, and has shared Tim Kennedy victim-blaming videos where she says he's right. You saw some of this in our preview. Angela Hill even called Waterson out for her positivity toward Trump. The fight didn't have a title on the line, but for Southpaw listeners, this context made the fight even more stressful.

The fight went all five rounds, in what was probably one of the closest fights in UFC history. Of course, it had one judge completely botching the scores, but it really could have gone either way.

Paul, can you analyze the fight for us?

The fight itself was action-packed and back and forth. Going from a three-round main card fight to a five-round main event definitely changed the dynamics of the fight. With only three weeks’ notice, both competitors had to adjust for the additional ten minutes of fight time, and that’s huge. Think about it this way: how many five-round fights have you seen where one competitor easily has the first two rounds won, only to fade in the third and barely survive to the final bell? Some fighters do best early on and coast in the later rounds when they think they have the fight in the bag.

As an example, Jorge Masvidal used to be notorious for losing the kinds of fights where it’s clear he dominated the first round, but just didn’t seem to keep up the pressure. In match-ups against Al Iaquinta, Lorenz Larkin, and Ben Henderson, Masvidal felt that he built up such a lead that he could take his foot off the gas for a little bit and cruise until the final bell, only to let his opponents attempt to come back and make the fights closer than they should be. On the flip side, you have athletes like Nate Diaz who can take a beating early but rely on their durability and pace to be enough to outlast opponents. Unfortunately for Diaz, three-round fights might not be enough time for him to try and slow-cook his opponents and finish them later. This is all to say that when a fight gets extended past the usual three rounds, it’s going to come down to who’s style is better suited when the fourth round begins.

In the Waterson vs. Hill fight, it was clear that Hill and her team had studied Waterson extensively. We spoke in the preview about how Waterson’s last few fights have been performances where she keeps her distance to the extreme, almost as if she’s trying to enforce social distancing during the fight itself. Hill countered Waterson’s air-punching and kicking by waiting until she was done and then stepping in with strikes of her own. In particular, Hill’s lead right hand landed whenever Waterson finished throwing her kicks and stayed stationary. Since Hill didn’t always lead with her jab and threw off Waterson with her stutter steps and feints, there wasn’t as much telegraphed movements for Waterson to try and counter. Fedor Emelianenko made a career out of throwing right-hand leads into the clinch since fighters are so used to looking out for the jab early on, they don’t always see the rear hand when it’s thrown first. Another fighter that Hill seemed to emulate was Darren Till. Till’s best strikes come as counters when he can feint effectively enough to get you to throw first so he can counter with his southpaw straight. Finally, if Hill’s constant lead leg raise into punch combinations looked familiar, it’s because it was effectively used by Jorge Masvidal against Donald Cerrone. Raising the lead leg while stepping forward is a great way to pressure opponents while protecting yourself from round kicks. When you step down, you’re closer to your opponent who has two options: retreat backward closer to the fence or try to counter-punch and hope it’s enough to keep it from happening again. Hill was able to get Waterson against the fence, denying her the open space needed for her kicking game to be effective.

It was also interesting to see Hill stance switching out in the open while moving forward, which seemed to keep Waterson from setting up her kicks or at least loading them with power. This kind of footwork was popularized by Dominick Cruz, and it’s not surprising to see his teammate utilize it effectively. The constant stance switching also had the serendipitous side effects of hiding Hill’s kicks as well as making any takedown attempts from Waterson much more difficult.

Things took a turn in the third round when Hill threw a knee while moving forward, only to have Waterson grab onto her hips and get an outside trip takedown. It might seem like a bad idea to throw knees against wrestlers, but it’s an effective tool…when used as a counter. Dustin Poirier was able to punish Eddie Alvarez whenever he ducked in low to throw hooks or attempt a takedown by hitting him with an intercepting knee. Since it’s thrown as the opponent is changing levels, the momentum of the chest or chin hitting the knee is amplified and serves as a deterrent for future attempts, if not outright knocking them out. Joaquim Hansen was famous for being able to time his knees against grapplers who tried to shoot in and take him down, only to be met with a knee to their face. For Hill, the takedown cost her the round and gave Waterson the opportunity to mount a comeback. Waterson secured the top of her half guard and controlled Hill while landing strikes to keep busy. Despite Hill’s attempts at scrambling back up, Waterson was able to make adjustments on the ground to stay in control. As mentioned in the preview, Waterson has more submission victories than decisions and knockouts combined (prior to this fight). Hill survived the round, but it might have been too late.

The fourth round saw Hill more tentative, and the bounce in her step seemed to dissipate. It didn’t seem to be as much of a cardio issue as it was a mental block. Hill has talked before about how she used to overthink her matches, and some of that crept back this time around. But then again who knows, Hill has fought five rounds before but the late notice and pressure of being the main event could have played a factor in slowing her down. When Hill rushed in or stayed in place after throwing her right hand, Waterson caught her with side and front kicks and did more damage than the first three rounds combined. With the fight tied at two rounds apiece, it came down to the fifth round which was also incredibly close. If there was any justice, the fight should have been a ruled a draw. But since this is MMA where judging is still all over the place, it was deemed a split decision with one judge giving Waterson FOUR rounds to one. Waterson took the W on an extremely close fight, but the future match-making is going to be rough.

For Hill, being the first black woman to headline a UFC card wasn’t the only historic milestone she accomplished. She is also now the busiest fighter on the UFC roster since 2017 with 13 fights, edging out Donald Cerrone, Marlon Vera, Jim Miller, and Andrei Arlovski. When looking at her early fights in 2015 and comparing them to today, it’s clear that she’s improved significantly. 

Takedowns are much harder to score on her, and if she does get taken down she’s able to get back up without taking too much damage. Her striking fundamentals are polished enough to give anyone in the division a tough time, and the fact that she still seems to be getting better is promising. For her to fight to her maximum potential, adding in some submission threats off her back could help create another line of defense against fighters who want to keep her down. Waterson’s early submission victories came from fighters who stayed in her guard for too long, only to get caught in scrambles and submitted. Hill doesn’t necessarily need to turn into a submission whiz overnight, but a few reactive submission threats wouldn’t hurt. Jorge Masvidal’s attempted D’arce chokes haven’t submitted anyone since 2013, but the THREAT of it is often enough to get opponents to bail on takedown attempts and hesitate on any future ones. Hill also still seems to hesitate a bit after throwing her right hand. This problem is common even at the highest level, and it’s been a weakness of fighters such as Georges St. Pierre, Michael Bisping, and Stipe Miocic. How did these fighters fix this issue? By adding in a left hook after they threw their right hand. This helped them end the combination without giving the opponents an opportunity to counter, and it also reminded them to pivot and mind their footwork so they don’t stay in place.

Both of her recent losses are incredibly close fights that could have gone either way and if you looked at it optimistically, she could be 5-0 in her last five fights. Sadly, the reality is that she’s now 3-2 and this does drop her in the rankings just a bit. Hill’s had some tough fights back to back, so perhaps giving her someone outside of the top 15 might help her round out some edges in her game. If the UFC is adamant about giving her someone ranked, a fight against the loser of the Mackenzie Dern vs. Randa Markos match-up could prove to be intriguing. A fight against Dern could see how well Hill can deal with an opponent that would look almost exclusively to get the fight to the ground, and a rematch against Markos could show the improvements in Hill’s game.

Waterson’s future is even tougher. So far, she’s faced most of the fighters in the top ten of the division, and she’s looking at mostly rematches at this point. One person she has yet to face is Marina Rodriguez. Both Waterson and Rodriguez have recent losses to Carla Esparza, so this could be a good fight to determine who gets to continue moving up to the top five of the strawweight division.     

Something else many minorities can relate to is imposter syndrome. Hill says in interviews she still feels like she's playing catch up because she started MMA later in life, but she has caught up. She's not an imposter. In fact, she's better than most of the division. As a late-stage beginner, she had to rely on pace to be competitive, but now that's holding her back. She's often the better fighter, and if she believes that, she won't need to rely so much on movement, and can rely more on her evolving feint and counter game. We all have self-doubt, which she's also mentioned in her interviews and why she overthinks. Why she's so cool, however, is because she's so candid. Her self-doubt probably doesn't improve with all the negative comments she receives. But we can't allow the worst in MMA to have the only voice. As a professional athlete, confidence doesn't come just from within, it also comes from the fans as well. They'll even tell you that.

A listener said, the disappointment we felt after Waterson vs. Hill might be a warm-up for next week's Covington vs. Woodley. I will say, one highlight from this weekend's MMA events was former guest Leslie Smith, from episode 21, wearing a "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" shirt not only before her Bellator fight but also after her victory as her hand was being raised. Millions of people saw that shirt, not just because of the broadcast but because of social media as well. Leslie Smith is a real one, but she's going to get a lot of hate. This is why women like Angela Hill and Leslie Smith need our support. This is also why Leftist media like Southpaw needs your support.