Athletes
Fatima Kline Wants to Keep Making Memories
Native New Yorker Discusses Fighting At MSG, Facing Angela Hill At VeChain UFC 322
Fatima Kline was born in Queens and lived in Long Island before moving up state. This weekend, “The Archangel” returns to the city and faces off with strawweight division mainstay Angela Hill on the preliminary card of VeChain UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden.
“Oh my gosh!” began the 25-year-old rising star when presented with the trio of acronyms that encapsulate this weekend’s festivities for her and everyone else: UFC, NYC, MSG. “I feel like for me, what it means right now is that it’s just gonna be an unforgettable night for me. I’ve had so many of those moments in my career, and recently I’ve been looking back, being so grateful.
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“Fighting at home, seeing where I’ve come, and now I’m at home fighting in the biggest arena in the world. I think for me it’s ‘this is how far you’ve come.’ It’s thrilling, it’s exciting, it means it’s gonna be the fight that I’ve always wanted to make happen, and now it’s happening against one of the most well-known girls at 115, and it’s happening at home.
“I’m super-excited to be able to take this opportunity and I’m running with it.”
While most would expect her to mention her title wins under the CFFC banner or her UFC debut last summer as the memorable moments that have crossed her mind of late, the truth is that Kline has been thinking a lot about her amateur debut, which took place more than six years ago at the Westchester County Center in White Plains.
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“I feel like I overcame so much adversity: I was sick, I was fighting at 125, I was fighting a really good girl who had way more experience than I did, and my family was packed out,” Kline said, recalling her first ever voyage into the cage, which resulted in a unanimous decision victory and her eventually transitioning to the pro ranks. “I mean, we packed this place out, and after I won, I just remember looking around and I saw family, friends, and thought, ‘Are there people here supporting other people?’ I feel like we filled in that place, so that was a huge moment for me when I look back.
“And now I’m doing it at home now, on the biggest stage in the world, where I’ve been wanting to since I was 10.”
So how many people does she anticipate will be in attendance this weekend?
Fatima Kline Earns TKO Victory Against Melissa Martinez | UFC Nashville
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Fatima Kline Earns TKO Victory Against Melissa Martinez | UFC Nashville
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“I’m getting messages, DMs from family members that I didn’t even know were family that are coming,” she said with a laugh. “I can’t even put a number on it.
“I’m from a family of seven —like immediate family —so that doesn’t include four aunts, five uncles, more than 20 cousins. My dad has worked in the city his whole life, so it’s like ‘this guy is coming, and that guy wants to come,’ and I’m just overwhelmed by the support. It feels like it did for my amateur debut, and that’s awesome; it’s gonna be special.”
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The fact that Kline is already looking at Saturday’s event as a special moment simply for the experience and getting to share it with family is part of what makes her a special talent.
Despite her relatively young age and limited professional experience, the strawweight prospect approaches things with an appreciation beyond her years and the skills to continue making special moments happen. Heralded as one of the top emerging names on the regional circuit after earning titles in two weight classes with CFFC, Kline was initially ticketed to compete on Season 8 of Dana White’s Contender Series, but soon after signing that contract, she got the call to move up a division on short notice and step in against Jasmine Jasudavicius in Denver.
She accepted, gave the surging Canadian all she could handle, and justified a great deal of her advanced billing while landing on the wrong side of the results. It was a collection of challenges all stacked on top of one another, and Kline readily rolled the dice, giving a good accounting of herself, which lessened the sting of suffering her first career loss.
In January, Kline returned to her natural weight class and pounded out her first UFC victory, stopping Viktoriia Dudakova in the second round. Seven months later, she showcased her developing striking skills, getting the better of Melissa Martinez on the feet for the first two rounds before felling her with a head kick midway through the final frame.
“I feel like it’s been little sparks,” offered Kline when asked about her impressive return to the 115-pound weight class and the results she’s garnered already this year. “I beat Dudakova, and that was a good fight, but we wrestled the whole time, and then Melissa, I was striking the whole time, but she was running away from me and wasn’t really fighting me back, and that was something.
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“Now with Angela, I know she’s gonna fight me, she’s gonna put up a fight —she’s tough, she’s durable — and I feel like that is just gonna make my game explode.
“The confidence I’ve gained in the past two fights —you can’t replace the confidence you gain coming from a grappling background and then going out and doing that head kick knockout,” she added, unable to keep from smiling when discussing her highlight reel finish of Martinez, which earned her the first performance bonus of her career. “I always knew I had it in me, but putting all the pieces together —and I work so closely with my striking coach, Augie (Matias) —and every fight I have, I’m doing a little bit more, something a little different; I’m keeping everybody guessing.
“I’m hoping to shock Angela.”
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.
Fatima Kline Elbows Her Way To Victory | UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Ribas 2
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Fatima Kline Elbows Her Way To Victory | UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Ribas 2
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While Hill is easily the most experienced opponent she’s faced to date, the prospect in this classic pairing has been ascending from the time she first set foot on the UFC canvas and now gets the opportunity to try and close out her first year competing in her natural weight class at the highest level in the sport by earning a place in the rankings.
“I’m so excited to be able to cap off this year with an absolute bang of a fight,” said Kline, her smile widening as she spoke. “Whatever happens happens, but I feel like every one of my fights, I just keep getting better and better, so to be able to fight Angela Hill specifically, in New York City on November 15, I feel like what better way to end the year than against Angela.
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“I have a lot of love in New York —I’m born in Queens, lived in Long Island, now I’m in Upstate New York — I have a lot of connections throughout New York and my career started here, so to be able to gain the experience that I have and the youth that I have and then get to fight someone like Angela with the experience she has, the resume she has, I just feel like this is gonna be a great fight for me, inside the cage and as a person in general.”
As much as she is happy and grateful to get to share the Octagon with Hill and compete at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, Kline is still focused on making this memorable moment truly unforgettable.
“I can see myself finishing Angela in either the second or third round,” she offered when asked to forecast how things play out this weekend. “If I could do what I did last time, I would do it all over again, but I want each moment to be special and unique in its own way, so I would love to see a finish on the ground; I’d love to submit her. I also know that she's never been knocked out before, so I would love to do that as well.
“My ideal would be knocking her out, getting my hand raised, getting a bonus, and going to celebrate with my family,” Kline added. “Breaking some records while I’m climbing up the rankings — that would be ideal.”
VeChain UFC 322: Della Maddalena vs Makhachev took place live from Madison Square Garden Arena in New York, New York on November 15, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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