Sara McMann has no ill will toward the UFC. In fact, she said the promotion that served as her home for nearly nine years took “really good care of me.”
All chapters must come to an end, however, and for McMann (13-6), it was time to move on from the UFC, where she amassed a 7-6 recent inside the octagon while fighting the likes of Ronda Rousey, Amanda Nunes, Miesha Tate and more. She recently signed a contract to join Bellator, and said it was important to find out her worth on the open market before putting pen to paper.
“Just being at a different point in my career I want to know what’s out there,” McMann told MMA Junkie. “I want to know if the fighters who are saying, ‘Oh, I make more money. I’m making killer sponsorship.’ I wanted to know if those things are real and true and if you can fight for another high quality promotion and do really, really well. And I’m really, really happy to say that that’s the case.”
McMann’s departure from the UFC was not a contentious one, she said, despite the awkward ending. She was supposed to fight Aspen Ladd in August, but then Ladd pulled out of the fight on short notice. It was then rescheduled for September, and Ladd missed weight.
Instead of fighting an overweight opponent, McMann exercised her right to decline the matchup. She said the UFC paid out both her show and win money, despite her belief it “legally didn’t have to pay me anything.”
That payout essentially served as the final fight on her contract, which allowed McMann to enter free agency and survey her options. And as it turns out, there’s a lot of positive upside.
The biggest of those upsides, in McMann’s mind, is the ability to seek out her own sponsors. The UFC forces uniforms and other branding upon its athletes, but Bellator operates differently.
“I think that one of the hardest things for most fighters, and I’m not bashing the UFC – I understand why they did what they did for a business decision – but there were so many fighters who were making comparable or sometimes more from sponsorships than they were off of their fight purse,” McMann said. “That sponsorship deal with Reebok and then with Crypto – at least Reebok and Venum actually paid the fighters. Right now they’re promoting Crypto and the fighters see none of that money. It was really sad for me. I was really sad for me for the fighters, because we have to make a living, too. I think other promotions keeping it the way that they have, it’s pro fighters. It shows the organization, what they care about.
“I don’t think it’s a big secret that they have a lot of control over fighters. With their dominance in some of the markets it’s a take-it or leave-it kind of thing. That’s sometimes the way the business is. I think the more promotions that become stronger contenders and the more promotions that offer really great money and really great exposure – things like that – they won’t be able to do that to fighters any more, because fighters will have other options.”
With her new home secured, and in a position of comfort with her financial situation, McMann, 42, is excited to deliver inside the Bellator cage. The former UFC women’s bantamweight title challenger will move up to featherweight, which is a division currently ruled by Cris Cyborg.
It’s McMann’s ultimate goal to fight for and win the Bellator title, but she said she wants to get her feet wet with a debut fight. When and where that will happen, she said she’s not sure, but it’s her hope to make her first Bellator appearance in the opening quarter of 2023.
“I definitely want to fight soon but I also respect that before I signed with this promotion they already had their cards set out,” McMann said. “I would love to fight in March, but if they’re full, I just have to accept that.”
