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How Do You Become a UFC Fighter?
Angela 'Overkill' Hill • 2025-03-03
Dylan Carnahan:Welcome to the Simple Questions Podcast. This is your host, Dylan Carnahan. The question for this episode is, how do you become a UFC fighter? You will learn in this episode, how to rise to the UFC, prepare for fights, and what sets the UFC apart from other organizations. Our guest is a UFC strawweight fighter with a professional MMA record of 17 and 14, became the first African American woman to compete in the UFC, is an Invicta FC and Muay Thai Champion. I introduce to you Angela Overkill Hill. I was trying to think of my earliest memory regarding the UFC. And quite frankly, I failed to find my earliest memory. I've watched many, many fights. But one of the memories that always sticks out to me is, I had a college baseball teammate, and he was talking about the UFC, and he kept bringing up chocolate L. And he's talking about chocolate L over and over again. And I have another teammate that just stops him and goes, are you talking about chocolate L? Is that who you're talking about? So that's kind of one of my favorite memories and thinking about the UFC just with some friends. But I'm curious, Angela, how did you even get into fighting?
Angela Hill:So I kind of got into fighting on accident. I was training, or no, not training. I was married. I just got married and me and my husband, we were both pretty young. We got married at like, I don't know, I was maybe 22, 23 or 21, 22. And we started getting fat because we got married and we just like sit around the house and play video games all day. And I was working at an animation studio at the time and he was working at an art gallery. So we sat down for a lot, a big portion of the day. And I always wanted to learn how to defend myself, how to fight. And every workout that I tried to do wasn't fun. And I just happened to come across a kickboxing gym that I wanted to try or Muay Thai gym that I wanted to try out. And I had asked around and my biggest concern was like looking bulky. If I did something like that as a skinny, you know, stick figure looking girl. But my main concern was like looking bulky. And everyone that I looked up that did Muay Thai, they had these like cool, like athletic but not super masculine build. So I was like, okay, I'll try that. And then me and my husband ended up going to a Muay Thai gym together. And we fell in love with it. Like the first time I threw a knee and I threw an elbow on the pads, I just felt so powerful. Like I couldn't, I couldn't believe that my little body could generate so much force, you know? So that was one of those like mind blowing moments that got me into just Muay Thai. And then the longer I did it, I started getting better. I started sparring, I started, you know, thinking about fighting. And when my coach asked me if I wanted to have my first fight, I was like, oh, okay, sure. If you think I'm ready. And he's like, yeah, we'll find out. So my whole like beginning of my career was very nonchalant, you know, and then eventually after fighting so many times, I ended up going pro and Muay Thai. Around that time, they had introduced women into the UFC. And then they were talking about introducing another weight class on tough. And I was fighting at 110 at the time between like 110 and 105, and there was no way I would be able to do anything at 135, which is the weight class they had, like Ronda and all them. But when they introduced 115, I was like, oh, okay, I could do that. So I tried out for the show. I had to get my first fight or whatever, but then I tried out for the show and I ended up getting on the show after one fight. So it was just like kind of a long process of doing it because I liked it. And then competing and realizing I was good at it. And then opportunity just kind of knocked at the right time for me.
Dylan Carnahan:Wow. There's a lot of serendipity there. And I get like the initial part of that story, right? Just trying to find something to be active. And then how things have blossomed to where you are now. I mean, that's a huge contrast. I guess what were some of the things that like mentally went through your head during that transition? Because it sounds like it was very like, as you put it, like nonchalant.
Angela Hill:It was. When I was doing all of that, when I was going from, I guess, working in studios, sorry, working in animation studios to to just being a full time fighter, I guess I just liked it a lot. You know, I was passionate about it. I had lost a bit of passion. I went to art school, that's where me and my husband met, and we had both kind of lost passion for the art world. It was also during the time of the recession back in 2008. So the job market was really dry. This felt like something that I could hustle with because after my first year of training, I started doing private lessons. I started teaching people how to box, like Wall Street guys and people just with a lot of money to throw at me. So I ended up just kind of hustling with fighting and also getting better at it and competing. And by the time I went pro, I was 14 and all in Muay Thai. And then I had two pro Muay Thai fights. And I kind of realized that I was better than most at it, even though I had started a bit late. Like I always joked that I was having my quarter life crisis when I started training Muay Thai. Because I had just turned, I think, 24 or 25. I was about to turn 25. And I was like, well, I guess I'm doing this thing now. But it was really fun. And so the more I got into it, the more I realized that, hey, it doesn't matter that I just started. I'm beating people who have been doing Muay Thai since they were 12. So that was kind of an eye-opener for me that, that for whatever reason, I started on third base with this thing. And I could probably push it as far as I wanted to. And I just kept pushing that boundary, like seeing, okay, let me have a fight. Oh, okay. Let me have another fight. Oh, let me try this other sport. Let me put it all together. And then eventually I ended up in the MMA world.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. I think throughout your whole story and just hearing you speak, you sound incredibly passionate. And you brought up the passion you have for fighting. I guess to those that, you know, Angela, there are going to be people that are listening to this that have never seen a fight, they've never been in one, they've never thrown a punch. What's, what do you find so passionate about this? Is it the competency you have in defending yourself? Is it, I guess, can you, can you elaborate on that for us?
Angela Hill:I think it's that whole journey as a martial artist, which sounds corny, it's just really fun. You get to this point where you feel like you know it, and then you get totally humbled, and you go back to the drawing board, and you keep evolving. And I think that's the part that's, that's really fun. Also, it's violent, which I think taps into a part of me that I don't usually embrace, because I've always been kind of a punk when it comes to confrontation. I'm always like the person who's trying to just, you know, defuse the situation. I don't want people to pop off at each other. So I've always been very, I guess, scared of confrontation. And once I started training, suddenly I became really comfortable in my own skin. And there's something about just knowing that you can handle yourself, if worst case scenario happens, like if, in an argument with someone, I feel like in the back of everyone's head, you're like, okay, if this gets any worse, we're going to be throwing hands. And I think just knowing that you'll be okay if that happens, you know what to do. Or even the fact that you won't die if you get punched in the face. I think that's a common misconception people have because of movies and TV. You feel like you get punched in the face and you're going to be knocked out for a day. And end up like tied up in someone's basement or something. You know, like that's just kind of how we think it goes down when you get in a street fight. But like it just makes me a lot more comfortable dealing with confrontation, dealing with situations. Just knowing how to move my body too, there's a lot of confidence in that. And even just in a normal situation, like walk into a room with a bunch of friends, you just feel more like you could be yourself and not worry about what others think because you have this state that you're good at. And I don't know how to really explain it. I mean, when I had the same feeling when I was an artist, just you could draw really good, you know? I could paint really good, better than most people. And it would always give you kind of this confidence like, hey, I have a talent. I can always lean on for that. But I think we're fighting just like the violence of it, too. And there's beauty in it, too. We pull off a cool move. You're so excited about it. And it's just fun to look at, fun to do. Yeah, you feel like you're in a movie when you're sparring and you're doing cool stuff.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, no, I appreciate you being candid and sharing your passion because I know that that's something that may be new to some people. And I can definitely understand kind of the two aspects that you brought up, which one, having mastery or being good at something, right, like that's a real big confidence booster. That's something that you can rely on. That's something that can be a part of your identity. I look at that as a former college baseball player. And then two, just the fact that it's a real skill set that you can use in real life and kind of how empowering that is to know that you can protect yourself. That's a pretty big deal.
Angela Hill:Yeah, there's like this primitive need to know how to do that or have some way to protect yourself. That's why this country is obsessed with guns, you know, because everyone has this primitive need to know that if something goes down, you're going to have a backup plan. You're going to have a plan A, B, and C. And learning how to fight does that, you know, like obviously I'm not going to try to punch the guy with a gun, but I can move really fast, you know, like I can get out of there. So there's always going to be advantages to just being athletic, being able to move your body in a way that's not clumsy, just yeah, when your brain switches on to like martial arts mode, you're a different person.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Now, if we take a step back and we go to kind of the journey you've been on and, you know, at least with mixed martial arts, how does the fighting circuit work? How does that work?
Angela Hill:What do you mean the fighting circuit?
Dylan Carnahan:You know, like how, you know, you talk about going from, you know, amateur to pro to I know like on cards, there's different, you know, we have weight classes and things like that. How does all that work together? I know it's very general, but.
Angela Hill:OK, I could try to boil it down. So I kind of looked out because the Ultimate Fighter, which is tough, the thing I was talking about, tough. The Ultimate Fighter is like a TV show where UFC basically does a reality TV show and the winners get to be in the UFC. And for my weight class, because they were introducing a weight class, everyone on the show ended up being in the UFC for that show. A lot of people got cut right after, including myself. But because I had already had that introduction, it was easier for me to get back into the UFC after getting a couple wins outside of the UFC. But when it comes to just like most fighters careers, usually you start out fighting the amateur. You have a few fights. You would want to train for just to be good at stuff. So for me, I was really good at Muay Thai. And because of that, I was able to be not so good at like Jiu-Jitsu, and wrestling, and all these other things. When I first started, I couldn't have any MMA amateur fights. So at least it's frowned upon to do that. So you get a bunch of experience as an amateur. Try to get as much experience as you can. Like I always tell people coming up to do as much Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai, as much as you can as an amateur before you go pro, because then all that has to be pro fights. So once you go pro, kind of the trouble now is people have issues getting those pro fights. But there's a lot of regional promotions out here. You get local shows. You get shows that get a little more reach. Like I do commentary for a show called Cage Wars, which is really big in the UK. And they started doing shows out here. But there's certain regional level shows that get a lot of reach. And people, they become like feeder leagues for the bigger shows. So when you have the bigger shows, you're thinking UFC, PFL, Bellator, 1FC. Those are some of the bigger shows out there that dish out like big boy paychecks. But when you're looking at the regional scene, you'll be lucky if you can get like 2,000 to show 2,000 to win something like that. And usually it's a lot lower. Usually it's 1,500. My first, my first pro MMA fight was on the regional scene and I got 300 and 300. But yeah, and that was because my Muay Thai record was so high. I had to throw some of my purse into the, my opponent's purse in order to entice them to fight me. So, so it can be hard, especially if you look really good coming off of your amateur fights, like it could be hard to get that first fight. But once you get into I guess a good position with the regional scene, you could win a belt. That always makes a good case for you. You could just be undefeated. You could have a killer highlight reel, have a bunch of finishes. And then that's when you'll have the big shows trying to hit you up. And yeah, it's a hustle. 99% of MMA fighters don't make it to that point, you know? So it really is a hustle. And that's why I always say I kind of came in at a good time because they were introducing the weight class. But I still feel like I would have made it there eventually if they didn't have tough just because I did have a bunch of Muay Thai fights. So I've finished a lot of my fights outside of the UFC. So yeah, I think it would have still worked out for me. But with the guys especially, it's really tough because if you're one of those weight classes where there's a ton of competition, it's really hard to stand out.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Wow. That's pretty-
Angela Hill:Because you're full, I guess.
Dylan Carnahan:No. No, that's all highly valuable information. I'm just going back to thinking about, man, what a hustle at the regional level, and then to try to break through and you're not getting compensated much. I'm sure, I know as a baseball player, like you're paying coaching staff, like you're having lessons, maybe you're giving lessons yourself to offset the lessons you're getting. There's all the nutritional aspect, all of that combined and then just for a shot.
Angela Hill:Yeah. Yeah, it's tough. You're usually in the negative until you make it to the big show. Even then, you can still be in the negative if you really invest in your fight camps. If you have to fly people out, if you have to go somewhere. I know the first time I fought at altitude, I was really taken aback at how much I had to pay in order to be prepared to fight at altitude, because you essentially want to set up the end of your camp in a place at altitude, so you don't crash during the fight. A lot of that stuff, you have to take into consideration when you're doing it. You have to have a bank roller, whether it's yourself or your spouse or a good sponsor, you have to have someone bank rolling that initial period, because you're definitely not making money to have it paid until you make it begin.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. I want to focus on the preparation for these fights, and I know that you namedrop fighting camp. You know, what kind of preparation do you do for a fight?
Angela Hill:So, when you're getting ready for a fight, you want to make sure you're in shape, most of all. And most likely, you already have some skills going into this fight, but some fighters don't do it, but their coaches will definitely look at tape and pick out which parts of the opponent that you're about to fight are things that you can exploit. Anything you might be worried about, like if you're fighting a wrestler, you want to make sure you're getting a lot of takedown defense. If you're fighting a knockout artist, you want to make sure you get a lot of stand up sparring. So, whatever you have to prepare for with that opponent, you base your fight camp around that. You also want to be getting in your strength and conditioning, your cardio work, team training is a big thing that most people, like the good athletes, still do it all year round. But when you're in fight camp, you're going to like a specific practice that is for professional fighters. Like you're not doing the cardio kick like on the bag, you know. Like you're going to a class that is focused on whatever your needs are, whatever your teammates' needs are for their next fight. And we usually do two or three sessions a day for about five days a week. A couple days during that week, you'll do one session just so your body can recover and you have rest day. So and everyone's is a little different. Like some people do two rest days, some people only do two sessions a week, some people do like seven. So everyone's a little different. But I think on average, most people are training pretty hard twice a day while they're in fight camp and taking Sunday or whatever one of the days off.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Something I'm curious about as a whole and is about sparring, because you're putting mileage on your body when you spar. I know as a baseball pitcher, you can throw a bullpen to prepare for a game, but those bullpen throws hurt your arm just as bad as the game does. I'm talking as someone who had shoulder surgery.
Angela Hill:Dang. I never thought about that.
Dylan Carnahan:How do you approach sparring knowing that you could get injured or that you're thinking about the longevity of your career maybe?
Angela Hill:It's a growing process, I think. I think MMA in general is still figuring it out, the whole scene. Back in the old school days, you can read those books, the MMA, they're really badly written, MMA diaries or whatever. They go hard. People will try to knock each other out in sparring. Back then, people thought that was the best way to prepare because you're fighting someone who's going to try to knock you out. I think nowadays, people put more of a focus on technical sparring, on focused work, on positional drills, on situational drills, where you're working on the thing that's specific for your fight. When you spar, even though you're going pretty hard, you still try to be safe. It's just one of those things that are so chaotic, that it's hard to control every aspect of sparring. It's hard to control if people run into you while you're sparring someone else. It's hard to control if you just happen to dip while someone's throwing something that they didn't mean to hit you in the face with, but you just dip into it. So I think the first time I got cut, I was sparring really light with this guy, and he was throwing like a knee. He was trying to throw a knee to the chest, and I just dipped as I was throwing a punch, and it landed right on my forehead. There's so many moving parts, it's hard to control everything, but it's really important just to keep your reactions up and to be ready for that fight. So I think just knowing your body, not going in when you're feeling run down, and when you know you're just going to get beat up in there is important, but you still have to get in a certain amount of sparring days before you jump in the cage, because otherwise you're just going to be behind the whole time.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. You brought up the technical aspect and kind of tuning that in camp. I'm curious, how have you changed as a fighter over time from a technical perspective?
Angela Hill:I used to spar pretty hard. And I think just because of my Muay Thai days, we would go hard, we would throw knees without knee pads, we just went after it. And I don't think then I was as worried about my chin. But I think once you get older, once you've gone through a bunch of wars, you want to be a little more safe with how much brain damage you're taking, especially outside of the fight. So I think once I started realizing that I was immortal, then I started toning myself down and trying to be more technical with everything. But you still gotta get after it every now and then. Like it doesn't have to be every day, which used to be how I approached sparring. Like every day I was just going hard. I think it's also like a sign of you being kind of green too. You don't have the finesse in order to be technical and still beat someone up. And like when I say technical, I don't mean that I'm just pitter pattering people. I'm using good technique. I'm not just throwing over hands over and over again until the person falls over, until I like headbutt them and then we're rolling around on the ground, even though I didn't go for a takedown, you know, like if you're setting things up better, you're seeing things better, the more experienced you are, and it makes sparring a lot easier. So there's kind of an exchange of things that are your priorities in sparring once you have the skills to actually like hang with the best people in the room. I think when you're just fighting for your life, you use a lot of strength, you try to just like throw hard and fast. I've been doing it for so many years, I can be more technical to win the rounds.
Dylan Carnahan:I opened things up to listeners on social media about, you know, what guest is coming on and what questions they have. And someone reached out and they brought up your professional record and they pointed out how you had fought many, many, many tough opponents. And that almost every fight you had was against, you know, a really tough opponent. And they wanted to ask, how do you feel about always having to compete against some of the best athletes? Even after coming off a loss or an injury, you know, you're facing a tough opponent.
Angela Hill:Yeah, it's one of those things where I always feel like I have, I always feel like I can win, you know? And I think a lot of those fights that I've lost were close decisions. A lot of them are decisions I thought should have gone my way. And it's just been kind of my MO from the beginning. I've never turned down a fight. I never hand pick my opponents. Every now and then they'll throw me someone who isn't that tough. And I'm like, all right, yeah. But then there's also that fear going up against someone who's not that tough because it's like, okay, if my perception of them is that it should be an easy fight and then I get beat up, what does that do to my perception of myself? So I think I like to fight tough people. My goal has always been to climb to the top of the rankings. And I feel like that's been kind of taken from me a few times. Like there were moments where I had a few close decision losses, a few robberies in a row. And that would have been my moment where I would have been in the top five. My moment where I would have been one of the next people in line for a title shot. And because of that, I'm always game. I'm always game for the next tough person. I always feel like I can beat everyone. And every now and then, I'll kind of get humbled and I'll go back to the drawing board and figure out what I messed up on. But it's always been, I've never felt someone can do to me anything worse than what I could do to them. So I think the problem is I always say yes. I think most people are a little more cautious about their career and they'll say, you know what? No, let me wait. And it is what it is. But that's also why I have the most fights in the strawberry division, because I never turn a fight down. I'm always game, always exciting when I get out there.
Dylan Carnahan:No ducking.
Angela Hill:No, it's not in my blood. I can't, I can't. My ancestors would be disappointed.
Dylan Carnahan:No, I love it. And you brought up some of the emotions you have when getting matched up with a competitor or having a fight come to you. I'm curious just in general, what emotions do you have when you're about to go in that ring or you're already in there? I know, and I keep relying on my baseball experience, but it's the same thing, right? There's statistics. People can look at your statistics. If you go out there and I give up home run, mom's watching. Dylan just gave up a new, this guy just hit a 400-foot bomb off of him. What are some of the emotions you have just as a person that have people that care about you, that are watching you fight, and as someone that has to go in there and fight against another person?
Angela Hill:I think the emotions shut off once you start going. It's hard for that to creep in. I don't think I've ever had a point where I'm like, oh, no, my mom saw that. But I think it's because fighting is so in your face. There's so much going on, and you're getting hit or trying to hit them back, and a lot of your focus goes to that moment. But before you walk in, all the emotions pour in. You're usually really excited, really nervous. Your adrenaline starts going. You get dry mouth. You have to pee a million times. All the things that happen when you're just really excited about something go down before the fight. Then I think before I get to the arena is where I have the most nerves, because I'm sitting around and waiting, but I know this crazy thing is about to happen at some point in the day. So I usually have the most nerves before I get to the arena. So we will usually do something called a shakeout, where we just do a quick warm up or a quick workout in the morning, just so you can calm those nerves. Like remind yourself, oh yeah, I'm throwing like missiles right now. You know, like, oh yeah, I'm really fast right now. My take down defense is on point right now. Oh, this sub is like perfect. So a lot of times you do that shakeout in the morning, just to calm your nerves. But I think the emotion that happens to most is nerves, if that's an emotion. But yeah, you're just, you're nervous about getting in there, about performing as well as you know how to. I think most athletes at that level, they'll have prepared, if you didn't, you're nervous about the fact that you didn't prepare that well. But I think most people just want to be able to do the things that they know how to do, put on a good performance. And once I get to the arena, it usually calms down a bit just because I'm there, you're in it, like there's nowhere to go. At that point, you can't just like trip down the stairs and go, oh, my ankle can't fight it anymore. So you're in it at that point. And it makes it a little easier to deal with what's about to happen. But yeah, there's a lot of calming of the breath. There's a lot of just trying not to get too excited before you get in the cage because things will just be worn out mentally by the time you get in there. And then as soon as the fight starts, I feel like you go into just muscle memory a lot of times. Like as soon as the first connection is made, then you're just going, you're tumbling, you're flowing, you're grappling. And if you can get to that flow state, then it's great. You know, you're just doing everything that you prepared to do.
Dylan Carnahan:It sounds like the emotions really come from the anticipation of the fight. During the fight, you're very present. You're defaulting to your training. And quite frankly, you have someone that's trying to hurt you. You're a little preoccupied.
Angela Hill:Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:Right. So you're very present. So.
Angela Hill:Yeah, it keeps you there. But aside from that, when you're going, I feel like it's just so fast. It feels so fast and so slow at the same time. And there isn't much time to think or feel like you're hopefully just doing.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. And earlier, you were joking. Okay. You're joking about going down the stairs. I'm curious, you know, what injuries have you had to overcome?
Angela Hill:Oh, man. There's no wood in here. Luckily, I haven't really had to overcome anything. No, nothing serious. I think the worst thing that's happened to me is I broke my toe before a fight. And it just, I think it more so messed me up mentally. Like I didn't want to throw kicks. I didn't want to push off of it too hard. But in the fight, I didn't really feel it. I was just conscious of it. But it did stop me from being able to run and to like, I don't know, didn't really kick pads, hit pads without shoes on. But other than that, I've been pretty lucky with injuries. I know 90 percent of people have had like knee stuff, like MCL, ACL tears, things like that. Shoulder injuries are really common. Neck injuries, back injuries. But I've been super, super lucky.
Dylan Carnahan:No, that's amazing to hear. That's good that you have a lack of personal experience in that category. But yeah, it's also too like the little, like even such a what sounds insignificant like your toe. It's like, okay, well, I can't train as like I can't train the same, right? And then you kind of have that little governor, right? Where you're kind of limiting that just a little bit because you're getting back in that. And that's a whole process and it takes your most valuable resource, which is time, right?
Angela Hill:Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny because that thing with Conor McGregor happened earlier this year where he was supposed to fight and he ended up pulling out of the fight and everyone's like, oh, well, it must have been really bad if he pulled out of the fight. And then it turned out it was a broken toe. And the entire fight world just went, you know, they all just smacked their teeth because I think every fighter at a minimum has fought with a broken toe before. And his looked pretty bad. So I'm not saying that he should have fought with a broken toe, but it's just, it's a very common injury that most people still walk in and fight with.
Dylan Carnahan:That's interesting. You know, I've heard that, I've heard that from other places that, you know, fighters sometimes have some ailments before they go in and you're bringing up the toe. What are some other, I guess, injuries of that same caliber that someone might still enter a fight with?
Angela Hill:The really famous one was TJ Dillashaw versus Aljermaine Sterling. He had a really messed up shoulder and basically it would pop out of the socket every time he would throw a hook or something like so in their fight, he was okay for maybe the first minute or so. And then his shoulder pops out and he just looked like handicapped. So that one was really bad. Fighters have fought with torn ACLs, torn MCLs, Shavkat Rachmanov just this weekend had a torn MCL when he fought and he ended up winning. So you get a lot of those type of injuries, like most usually the common ones. Aljermaine Sterling again fought with like a really messed up neck for a long time until he got surgery to have it fixed. And I think the most common injuries that people fight on are the ones that you need surgery to fix because then after surgery, you can't fight for a long time. So if they're able to just gut it out and make it through a fight camp with this injury, then they'll opt to fight and then fix it afterwards. And also the fight insurance covers any injuries you have in the fight so you just act like it happened in the fight.
Dylan Carnahan:That's interesting, right? You're going, okay, I'm for sure going to have to have surgery. I'm going to be laid out for this amount of time, PT for this amount of time. Like that's, you know, maybe that's 10 months or something, depending upon what it is, could even be more, right? And so then you're saying that someone might make the decision to go, okay, well, I'm just going to get in as many fights as I can. With the health I have, and when it gets bad enough, I'll just opt for that surgery.
Angela Hill:Yeah, I mean, I don't think people do multiple fights without an MCL, but they'll definitely do one. Especially if it happens towards the end of the fight camp, which happens a lot because, you know, training gets more intense, your calorie intake is probably a little lower if you're cutting a lot of weight, you're tired. So a lot of injuries happen towards the end of fight camp. And then if you're able to still walk and act like you're not injured, then you might just suffer for a couple more weeks and get in there and then fix it afterwards.
Dylan Carnahan:Wow, this is interesting. This is interesting stuff. I'm curious, you know, like, I'm sure that what we just talked about is a newer concept for some people, thinking along those lines. Is there anything that you think is like a large misconception that most people have about fighters or fighting that you'd want to address?
Angela Hill:Um, I feel like it's different nowadays, but I think when we, when I started, people thought that a lot of fighters were just from, I don't know, just the same walk of life. Like, they were all just ruffians who couldn't do anything else with their lives, so they ended up fighting. Like, fighters, the only thing I was good at, like, everyone had that backstory. But I think nowadays you see a lot of people from a bunch of different backgrounds and they're just all martial artists. And I think if you, if you ever walk into a martial arts gym, like a BJJ gym, a Muay Thai gym, a boxing gym, and you meet the people who go in there a lot, it's people from all different walks of life. So I think that was kind of a common misconception earlier, but I think now that people have focused more on like the fighters and their life outside of fighting, anyone who takes a second to watch will see that. I don't know, maybe they think we make a lot of money. I think people probably assume we make more than we do. It's gotten a lot better since when I first started, but it definitely isn't the same as someone in the NBA or the NFL or anything like that. So we're still working towards getting up there, but it's definitely gotten better in the years. I'm trying to think what else. I don't know. I think that's probably it.
Dylan Carnahan:Those were good.
Angela Hill:Yeah, okay.
Dylan Carnahan:Those were good. I know that you referenced going to martial arts studios and seeing people from various different backgrounds. I guess, what advice do you have for aspiring fighters?
Angela Hill:For aspiring fighters, I would just say make sure you like training because a lot of people get into the sport or they see the end result and they think, oh, that's cool. I want to do that. But then once they feel what it feels like to go through a wrestling class, to go through a sparring class, it's tough. And a lot of people don't want to do the hard work. We would always joke that no one would show up for clench class because that's kind of the stand-up equivalent of wrestling. And it's really hard on your neck. And it's not as fun as just kicking things over and over again. But that was one of the essential skills that you need in order to be a good fighter. And same with wrestling. It's hard. It's hard on your body. It's hard to learn as an adult, for sure. And if you don't enjoy that process or at least aren't going to grit through, then it makes training for a fight really, really annoying and unfun. So I think the people who do best at MMA are the ones who enjoy coming into the gym and training and just getting tired with each other. I think those are the people who do the best in fighting or at least in the happiest in fighting because if you feel like every time you go into the gym, you're sacrificing something and you're just doing it to be a star. And a lot of times you're just going to be disappointed in it.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, you are spending the majority of your time training for the fight and then the minority of the time you're actually performing the fight and then the reward, that's just kind of something that happens, right? So you're saying that if you're not enjoying training, you're not going to enjoy the majority of what you're doing.
Angela Hill:Exactly. You got to stress the process and enjoy the process. And if you don't, then like you picked the wrong profession. Because there's a lot of easier ways to make money. Like that's that's a quote my husband used recently. There's a lot of easier ways to make money, especially in the beginning, you know. There's so many easier ways to make the money that you would make on the regional scene. And I mean, same with like once you get to the big show, if you can't do the work to perform, then you're going to be in and out so fast if you make it that far. So it's a grind and it's a lifetime grind until you're out of there, until you're done. And then after that, you got to figure out what else to do with your life because you've been spending so much of your time focusing on fighting. So I guess another thing I would say is always have that backup plan ready and not even a backup plan, but just after plan and have have it be something that you can start wherever you're at in your career. And that'll help you get transitioned to that next stage and not stick around too long because we see that a lot with MMA fighters like you stick around too long because that's the only thing you know how to do is fight.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. So you're saying have have something to do outside of your career or after your career and that it's kind of hard for people to make that jump maybe because fighting is such a big part of their identity. And quite frankly, on a daily basis, that's you're doing something related, whether it's your nutrition or training or stretching or whatever. You have all these ancillary skills that kind of all feed into that. So if you break up that daily routine, you know, that could be, that's a pretty big shift. So have something in addition to that. That's what I'm hearing.
Angela Hill:Yeah, yeah. And like mentally, too, it's just, it's tough to put the gloves down. You know, there's always that period of depression that fighters talk about when they're finally, they finally say they're done and they just feel like they could do one more, they could do one more, but they know it's against their best interests. So it's really tough to make that final decision, but I think if you have other things in play, then it makes a lot easier.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Angela, what's the best way for people to learn more about you and the work you do?
Angela Hill:The best way to learn more about me, I'm pretty active on Instagram. So if you follow me on Instagram at angieoverkill, you can keep good track of what's happening next. I should probably make a website at some point, but I haven't done that yet. But I also have my own podcast called 2Straws that I do with my friend Jessica Penne, who's also a UFC veteran. And so we do that about twice a week, talking about MMA and fighting and current fights and our fight camps and stuff like that. So yeah, those two.
Dylan Carnahan:Awesome. And I'll make sure for those of you that are listening that all of that is in the show notes for this episode for you to check out. Angela, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and time today.
Angela Hill:Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Dylan Carnahan:That wraps up our conversation with Angela. We talked about handling anxiety before a fight, training regimens and combat techniques. Go to this episode's show notes to see any resources Angela mentioned during our episode. And lastly, subscribe to the Simple Questions Podcast to get notified when our latest episodes are released. Thank you for listening and remember to keep asking questions.