The bout between Angela Hill and Tabatha Ricci has been set for UFC Fight Night on August 24 at UFC Apex in Las Vegas aka UFC Vegas 96. The contest pits the No. 9 women’s strawweight contender of Prince George’s County, Maryland against No. 11 of Brazil.
39-year-old Hill (17-13) submitted Luana Pinheiro in the second round at UFC Vegas 92 in May and secured her second win in a row. 29-year-old Ricci (10-2) fought in St. Louis also in May, taking the victory by split decision against Tecia Pennington.
“I’m going to be fighting on August 24th in the [UFC] Apex again, but but it’s going to be against Tabatha Ricci,” Angela Hill said on her 2Straws podcast with former title challenger Jessica Penne (14-7).” So that’ll be a fun one. She’s good, she’s strong. We actually trained together a few years ago. I’m excited about this one.”
“Unfortunately it’s not a step up, but at least it can be a step in the right direction. It’s not a back step, it’s a side step. But it’s still a really tough fighter, who I’m going to learn a lot from, especially if I whoop her a**, which is the plan.”
“So yeah, I’m really excited about it. As soon as I got the name I started game planning immediately. It’s one of those ones that you can really sink your teeth into.”
The promotion is yet to formally confirm the matchup.
With the addition of Hill vs Ricci, the current UFC Vegas 96 lineup looks as the following:
- Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Gerald Meerschaert, middleweight
- Jose Medina vs. Zachary Reese, middleweight
- Viacheslav Borshchev vs. James Llontop, lightweight
- Dennis Buzukja vs. Danny Silva, featherweight
- Roman Kopylov vs. Brunno Ferreira, middleweight
- Jacqueline Cavalcanti vs. Josiane Nunes, women’s bantamweight
- Michael Morales vs. Neil Magny, welterweight
- Wang Cong vs. Victoria Leonardo, women’s flyweight
- Angela Hill vs. Tabatha Ricci, women’s strawweight