Angela Hill was the oldest competitor on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card in Macau, China, yet the 41-year-old turned back the clock with a clinical performance.
In her 30th UFC appearance, Hill swept the scorecards against former ONE Championship titleholder Xiong Jingnan who was making her UFC debut.
Hill extended her record for most total appearances by a female fighter in the organization’s history.
China’s Xiong, 38, had won her final five fights under the ONE banner but hadn’t fought in 14 months. Xiong’s lone loss in ONE was to her rival, Canada’s Angela Lee, a fighter Xiong defeated twice.
The unanimous decision victory was Hill’s 13th win in the strawweight division, which is also a UFC record.
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Hill, who was the listed underdog before the fight, out-struck Xiong in all three rounds and the 122 significant strikes she landed in the 15-minute bout was her highest strike total since her 2022 win over Emily Ducote.
The Alliance MMA team member is 14-16 overall in the UFC and tied with Gillian Robertson for No. 4 on the women’s all-time wins list behind only champions Jessica Andrade (17), Amanda Nunes (16) and Valentina Shevchenko (15).
After this win, Hill ranks six all-time in UFC history (regardless of weight class) in total time spent competing in the cage (7:12:45). She also jumped from fifth to third all-time in total strikes landed (2,763) and is also third all-time in significant strikes (2,364) behind only Max Holloway (3,681) and Sean Strickland (2,430).
Hill debuted on the UFC roster in 2014 and although her 14-16 record in the organization leaves much to be desired, Hill has consistently faced top competition and entered the weekend ranked No. 14 in the 115-pound division.
She never challenged for a title but has faced strawweight champions like Rose Namajunas, Jessica Andrade, reigning titleholder Mackenzie Dern, and has gone the distance with past title challengers Virna Jandiroba, Amanda Lemos and Yan Xiaonan.
Saturday’s strawweight bout was one of two 115-pound contests featured on the preliminary card at Galaxy Arena.
In the other, Brazil’s Jaqueline Amorim earned her fourth submission win in the past two years with a first-round armbar of Thailand’s Loma Lookboonmee. Amorim is now 5-2 in the UFC’s 115-pound division with all five wins via stoppage.
Japan’s Rei Tsuruya returned to action with an impressive performance that should put the rest of the men’s flyweight division on notice.
Tsuruya was originally supposed to face Jesus Aguilar, who withdrew due to injury, but he instead faced Luis Gurule who wass coming off a win less than two weeks ago. Colorado’s Gurule snapped a three-fight skid with a unanimous decision over Daniel Barez at the Meta Apex earlier this month but he didn’t last long against Tsuruya.
The 23-year-old took Gurule down and locked in a tight squeeze that forced a tap in the opening round. It's the first time anyone has submitted Gurule.
Tsuruya debuted in the UFC two years ago with a win over Carlos Hernandez at UFC 303 but suffered his first pro loss in his second appearance when he went the distance with current 125-pound champion Joshua Van 14 months ago in his most recent bout prior to UFC Macau.
Both Tsuruya and Gurule typically compete in the flyweight division (125 pounds) but given the short-notice nature of the matchup the bout was contested at bantamweight (135 pounds) instead.
Also on the prelims, UFC newcomers Luis Felipe Dias of Brazil and Rodrigo Vera of Peru won their debuts with knockouts of Yi Sak Lee and Zhu Kangjie, respectively. Cody Haddon stopped Aori Qileng with knees to the body and Jose Henrique Souza escaped with a split decision over Ding Meng.
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