Angela Hill has her 31st UFC fight lined up. The strawweight veteran meets Shanelle Dyer on December 12 at UFC 335 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. MMA Junkie first reported the matchup, and multiple sources then confirmed it to Heavy.com. Hill sits at No. 14 in the UFC media rankings, so the stakes are simple. Dyer, in only her third UFC bout, gets a shot at taking that spot directly.
The ranking situation has one wrinkle. Hill is ranked by the media panel but unranked in the Meta rankings. That gives a tidy summary of where she’s lived for years: in the top 15, rarely near the top five, and frequently on the wrong end of decisions that could have gone her way against former title challengers.
Her path to fight No. 31 started on The Ultimate Fighter Season 20, which she entered with a 1-0 pro record. Carla Esparza, who went on to win the season, eliminated her early. Hill still won her UFC debut against Emily Kagan, then dropped two straight in 2015 and was released. She rebuilt in Invicta FC with four consecutive wins, picked up that promotion’s title along the way, and earned her way back. She now holds a pile of records in the women’s strawweight division.
The best stretch of her career ran from 2022 through 2024, when she went 4-1. The only loss in that run came in her lone UFC main event, against Mackenzie Dern, who is now the champion. Last year was rougher. She opened with a win over Ketlen Souza, then lost to Iasmin Lucindo and Fatima Kline. She steadied things on May 30 in Macau with a strong performance against Xiong Jingnan, the former ONE Championship champion making her UFC debut. A win over Dyer would give the 41-year-old a two-fight streak to close 2026.
Dyer is 16 years younger and has a résumé built mostly in England. She spent three years as an amateur and won multiple titles before turning pro in 2023. Two knockouts on the regional scene got her signed by the PFL, where she won three straight in the PFL Europe tournament before an injury kept her out of the finale. Last year she went to Dana White’s Contender Series and lost a unanimous decision to Carol Foro, her first professional defeat. White said he loved the fight, and both women walked away with contracts. Dyer has been busy since. She stopped Ravena Oliveira in Round 2 of her UFC debut in front of a home crowd in England and earned Performance of the Night. Then she stopped Elise Reed by TKO in Round 3.
Hill vs. Dyer sits on a stacked card. Charles Oliveira faces Diego Lopes, Sergei Pavlovich meets Alex Pereira, and Brandon Moreno takes on Charles Johnson. That last one should please every flyweight diehard reading this.
My take: matchmakers love handing veterans to prospects, and the prospect usually gets the nod from the betting crowd. I’m going the other way. Dyer’s lone pro loss came when Foro dragged her the full distance, and Hill has spent more than a decade making opponents fight every second of every round. The Reed stoppage tells me Dyer can finish late, which keeps this interesting. Still, Hill is the toughest test of Dyer’s career by a wide margin, and she’s coming off a win over a former ONE champion. Hill by decision, and I’d bet my lunch money on at least one judge making it closer than it should be.
