The fact that Kline is paired with Hill in just her fourth UFC appearance and third since returning to the strawweight division speaks volumes about not only what she’s already done inside the Octagon this year, but also the upside the promotion sees in the native New Yorker.
Hill is the most experienced fighter in the division, having made 28 UFC appearances, and the primary veteran test every aspiring strawweight must face if they want to work their way into the rankings. Usually, those matchups come when the up-and-coming competitor has a little more experience under their belt.
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“I think they see me as somebody who can and will win the belt; that’s what I know, no matter what the timeframe is,” Kline said when asked what getting paired off with the battle-tested Hill this early means in terms of how the promotion sees her at this point in time. “I don’t want to be rushed, but if the UFC believes I have that type of potential, I’m gonna run with it. I think they see me as hopefully a future star at 115 pounds, and if they don’t see it now, I plan on proving it to them.
“I feel like my whole career has been ‘How big of a risk are you going to take?’” she added. “In my amateur debut, I feel like everything was against me in that fight, and I still came out victorious. Even the Jasmine fight — I put everything that I could come up with in 10 days out there, and deep down, that was a win because if I can do that on 10 days, who knows what I could have done to her on eight weeks’ notice. My grappling career was similar, where it was like, ‘this is a big jump; am I gonna shy away from it or am I gonna take it?’”
Kline has yet to shy away, and this weekend is no different.
