Hill exempted from 4-month USADA rule, returns against Andrade at UFC Houston
Angela Hill is returning to the Octagon - with a little bit of help from USADA.
Hill is set to meet strawweight contender Jessica Andrade on Feb. 4 at UFC Fight Night 104 in Houston, the promotion announced Tuesday. The pair were originally slated to fight at UFC 207 last month, but a rule in the USADA anti-doping policy kept Hill from being booked, as fighters returning to the UFC are required to enter a four-month testing cycle before being cleared to take the Octagon.
In a Tuesday statement, the promotion revealed Hill - an Invicta FC champion who'd re-enrolled in the Registered Testing Pool in December 2016 - had been granted an exemption from the testing period, citing "exceptional circumstances" in which the rule's application would be "manifestly unfair to the athlete."
The UFC and USADA are currently reworking the policy to apply solely to fighters who choose to leave the promotion and the four-month testing pool.
Prior to mounting a four-fight win streak and capturing the Invicta FC strawweight title, Hill went 1-2 in a trio of UFC contests, suffering back-to-back losses to Tecia Torres and Rose Namajunas after besting Emily Kagan by unanimous decision in her promotional debut in December 2014. "Overkill" most recently defended her Invicta strap against Kaline Medeiros by unanimous decision in November 2016.
Rejuvenated since moving down to strawweight last year, the fifth-ranked Andrade has won two straight, knocking out Jessica Penne at UFC 199 before tapping Joannne Calderwood in under a round at UFC 203 this past September.
UFC Fight Night 104 will be headlined by a clash between top featherweights Dennis Bermudez and the returning Chan Sung Jung.