Hill is back on gatekeeper duty in what should be an enjoyable
pairing. Hill’s career is a clear success story, given that she was
essentially thrown to the wolves in her first UFC stint. A late
comer to mixed martial arts, Hill had all of one professional fight
coming off her season of “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2014. “Overkill”
unsurprisingly washed out of the UFC shortly thereafter—getting
matched against Tecia
Torres and Rose
Namajunas was particularly cruel in retrospect—but a breakout
2016 campaign saw Hill run through the Invicta Fighting
Championships strawweight division and quickly earn her way back
onto the UFC roster. From there, she has essentially been the
litmus test for fighters to get into the UFC’s Top 15, gaining a
following thanks to her willingness to fight as often as possible.
This marks her third fight of 2022, and that ranks as one of the
slower paces of her career in terms of fights within a calendar
year. As a fighter, she is essentially well-rounded to a fault
after smoothing out her weaknesses. She has gone from having cardio
issues to becoming a consistent three-round fighter, and her
wrestling defense is still uneven but greatly improved, as
demonstrated in her August win over Lupita
Godinez. While she is a perennially tough out, Hill is not a
particularly dominant physical force, a reality that often leaves
her unable to put together impactful moments over the course of her
fights; it is not a surprise that she has become quite notorious
for losing some controversial split decisions. At any rate, it will
be interesting to see what Ducote can get done in this assignment,
as an impressive victory may mark her as someone who can quickly
find a path towards title contention. A pro since 2015, Ducote took
a few years to figure things out. “Gordinha” struggled a bit as a
flyweight submission specialist in Bellator MMA before finding much
more success as a strawweight. The cut down has given Ducote a lot
more physical parity, and she has helped things along by developing
a patient but often powerful striking attack. Overall, Ducote has
turned into a well-rounded and calculated fighter who has proven
quite capable of dictating the terms of her fights. In her UFC
debut against Jessica
Penne in July, that meant Ducote keeping the action on the
feet, where she was able to chop down the Alliance MMA product with
leg kicks and then dominate the latter stretches of the fight. It
will be interesting to see how she approaches her latest challenge,
because Hill is a much more mobile opponent and it remains unclear
how well Ducote’s wrestling will fare. Ducote has moved away from
that part of her game as matchups have dictated recently, and Hill
is coming off that excellent performance against Godinez. The bet
is that Hill can make things frustrating enough to take advantage
of the Oklahoman’s patience before Ducote starts taking the fight
over late. However, this looks like yet another Hill fight that
could go either way, both on paper and in practice. The pick is
Hill via decision.
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