LONDON – Molly McCann has been here before, about to be in the same kind of spotlight, but that doesn’t mean it’s feeling commonplace.
McCann (12-4 MMA, 5-3 UFC) on Saturday takes on Hannah Goldy (6-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) on the UFC Fight Night 208 main card at The O2 in London. The card streams on ESPN+. McCann is one of the biggest favorites on the card at Tipico Sportsbook at more than 4-1.
Those heavy odds at the betting window have a lot to do with her March win at The O2: a spinning back elbow knockout of Luana Carolina that sent the arena into a frenzy for the Liverpudlian and got her an extra $50,000 for Performance of the Night.
That post-fight bonus was one of nine the UFC handed out for the event, its long-awaited return to London. Every finisher on the card got an extra check – and the success of the event, in no small part thanks to McCann and teammate Paddy Pimblett necessitated a quick return for the UFC.
McCann said she still get starstruck thinking about making the walk and fighting in The O2.
“When you’re a kid and you grow up watching fighters fight in arenas, and you always want to go and do that, I don’t think it’ll ever not be … it just takes my breath away every time, and I’m probably not going to get used to it,” McCann said at a Wednesday media day for the event.
But she also knows her spinning back elbow, while likely to live on in highlight reels for a long time, does’t mean she can walk through Goldy.
“That spinning elbow means f*ck all on Saturday,” McCann said. “That’s not going to win me the fight, living off the last fight. But what it has done is given me the belief and it’s given me the mental fortitude to come into this one and know really what I’m capable of. You all may have seen it the last time I was here. I was calm and I was collected … I’m really finding my feet in the UFC now, and I just want to show consistency.”
Check out McCann’s full pre-fight interview in the video above.
