Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Michelle Waterson vs Angela Hill

 Here's the match video of Michelle Waterson vs Angela Hill from last night's UFC show in Las Vegas. I thought this would be a very close fight. My main concern was that Michelle would try to use the Jackson Wink avoid contact strategy and they would dance for 25 minutes. But it was a close fight. Angela won round one landing combinations. Round two was closer but I thought Angela won that too. So I scored the first two rounds 10-9 for Angela. One of the judges scored round two 10-9 for Michelle. The round was close enough for that to be OK. Round three was the key to this fight as Michelle finally got a takedown and ground control for much of the round. Though Michelle did not come close to a submission, it did plant in Angela's mind that she had to avoid takedowns. And to do that in the last two rounds, she chose to be less aggressive than she was early in the fight. And this opened the door for Michelle to be more aggressive and I scored both rounds 10-9 for Michelle. Angela's coach Eric Del Fierro told her before round five to throw more combinations but she didn't do that. I scored the fight 48-47 for Michelle. One judge scored it the same. The judge that scored round two for Michelle scored it 49-46 for Michelle. The third judge scored it 48-47 for Angela as he scored round five for Angela. Michelle wins by split decision. Dana White said last night that he is close finalizing Zhang Weili defending her UFC Strawweight Championship against Rose Namajunas. Other than Joanna Jedrzejczyk, the other high ranking Strawweights are already booked. Joanna is teasing retirement but she hasn't announced anything. So I don't think we will see Michelle until 2021. Obviously Angela thought she won the fight. She said at the post fight press conference "I guess I have to take bitches down and hug them" meaning she doesn't understand the value of ground skills. She has some skills but not enough to beat elite fighters. Enjoy the video!