Angela Hill made history relatively early in her professional MMA career when she became the first black woman to compete in the UFC, and now she’s just been promoted to purple belt in BJJ. Hill was promoted in an inpromptu announcement at Alliance Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego, where she was promoted by her Jiu-Jitsu coach, 4th degree black belt Johnny Faria. Also present was one of her training partners, who just so happens to be elite BJJ black belt and relatively new MMA fighter Jena Bishop.
Hill has had a tough road throughout her combat sports career and has experienced all of the highs and lows that come with fighting for a living. Hill started out her career as a striker and managed to amass an impressive 16-0 professional kickboxing career before eventually making the transition to MMA. She only had one professional MMA fight on the regional circuit before being called up to the twentieth season of The Ultimate Fighter, where she lost in the first round to Carla Esparza. She still fought in the finale event and managed to come away with a win against Emily Kagan in her UFC debut.
She lost her next two fights against tough opposition from Tecia Torres and Rose Namajunas, leading to her being cut from the UFC with a 2-2 professional record. Hill bounced back quickly in Invicta FC by rattling of four consecutive wins and becoming the promotion’s Strawweight champion. This earned her a call back to the UFC where she has spent the last four years and sixteen fights of her career as a near-constant presence in the top fifteen of the strawweight division.
The news of Angela Hill being promoted to purple belt in BJJ was announced by her in a post to her official Instagram account:
