UFC star Molly McCann has said she still struggles with being gay even to this day.
The Liverpudlian fighter opened up about her experience with her sexuality when speaking to sports promoter Eddie Hearn on the BBC's podcast No Passion No Point. Molly, more affectionately known as ‘Meatball’, talked about how she would still get looks and abuse when she holds her girlfriend's hand in public.
The 31-year-old, who came out as gay six years ago, has previously said, by her own admission, that she had 'ran from' her sexuality with the notions of public perception and a catholic upbringing deterring her from living life as her true authentic self.
READ MORE: UFC star Molly McCann 'ran from' her sexuality as religion 'wouldn't let' her come out
More recently, when opening up to Eddie Hearn, Molly said she doesn't let other opinions bother her too much because 'I am who I am'. She said: "I struggle with being gay still, Eddie, do you know what I mean? It's not nice for me to sometimes walk down the street and I'll get abuse. It's not really in the city that I am from but if you go somewhere and I hold my girlfriend's hand, the looks that you can get and the abuse you can get it's still quite traumatic to be honest.
"It hurts, I don't sit on it or dwell on it, you just get on with it because I am who I am so I'm not going to feel bad about that anymore but I just thought I have to keep reliving this moment and keep on, not forcing it upon people, but when questioned about it, I need to be honest and true.
"If people can see that even someone like myself would still struggle but I am still trying to fight the good fight and it might help a different kind of community, not the community I am from but the queer community I represent.
"These are all things you probably never know how deep that I was or anything because you meet Meatball, not Molly McCann. So, it's nice people have been able to understand she's actually not just a mad woman who heckles at the boxing fights and all that kind of thing, but I'm kind of like an onion. There's lots of layers to me."
Molly's guest appearance on the podcast comes a few weeks after she talked about her struggles with her sexuality in a tell all documentary titled Meatball Molly. The BT Sport documentary not only detailed her rise in MMA but also touched on the adversity she has faced along the way.
Speaking more about the discrimination she continues to battle in the programme, Molly said: "When I was younger I wouldn't even entertain being gay because society wouldn't like it. Look I'm 31 now, I came out when I was 25, imagine what it was like when I was 10. Religion wouldn't let you.
"My religion wouldn't let me. Until I found MMA and had a safe space to be me, then I could be like 'I'm Meatball now'. Imagine how hard it still is for some people to come out now though. I'm from a lucky generation as well, imagine the generation before me and the one before that. In the 1960s when the Stonewall riots happened - it was illegal to be gay."
Molly, a former Cage Warriors flyweight champion, did however praise the UFC for embracing fighters of all backgrounds. She added: "I think the promotion that I work for champions equality which helps now. There are females fighting the same amount of rounds, and the same amount of minutes, as men. They celebrate a man or a woman. Obviously, no male has come out in the company yet but for Gay Pride week, they made everyone's fight in rainbow fights. And they put so much money towards LGBTQ plus charities."
