Molly McCann has a Liverpool homecoming and a “little dance” in Madison Sq. Backyard etched on her checklist of unfinished boxing enterprise, however for now her focus is solely on a UFC belt-chase in tandem along with her octagon brother Paddy Pimblett.
The 31-year-old produced fireworks befitting of UFC’s return to London after three years this month as she knocked out Luana Carolina with a surprising reverse spinning elbow to carry her report to 12-4.
It made for Efficiency of the Night time in entrance of a star-studded crowd at what marked the highest-grossing sports activities occasion ever to be held at The O2.
“It does really feel completely different,” McCann advised Sky Sports activities. “I feel as a result of ladies are by no means actually able to knocking one another out clear, identical to stone chilly out for the rely.
“And I feel the place I did, it is by no means actually been seen earlier than and in addition the very fact it was in all probability among the finest spotlight reel knockouts that might be used for the remainder of time throughout the age of issues going viral.
“The individuals who have been there, the likes of Anthony Joshua, Wayne Rooney and Eddie Hearn, Liam Payne, everyone that was there, all these large names, it was simply such a large occasion and the way profitable it was.”
Molly McCann talks about her friendship with Paddy Pimblett and the way it’s eased the strain of her within the UFC
McCann has lofty title ambitions throughout the UFC, however has reaffirmed her intention to in the future return to her boxing roots amid a day and age of increasingly-common crossover in fight disciplines.
Undisputed feminine gentle middleweight champion Claressa Shields is among the many main case research in that regard, having stepped into the world of combined martial arts with the Skilled Fighters League in 2020.
“I come from newbie boxing and I will be going again to boxing, I’ll do the changeover and the crossover after I am carried out inside MMA,” McCann defined.
“If it is your bread and butter I feel folks coming from MMA to boxing might be as a result of the boxing wasn’t there, the professional scene wasn’t there developing in order that’s why you’d in all probability have needed to go to MMA.
“I feel inside boxing you speak about ‘it is all the time about cash’ however there’s extra money for girls in MMA than there may be in boxing.
“It is the opposite approach round for males clearly but it surely’s extra right down to cash actually why Claressa Shields could be coming over to MMA.”
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Shields is a number one advocate for equal pay for girls in sport, an space McCann additionally believes boxing should deal with transferring ahead.
“In MMA and UFC, we’re handled the identical as the boys are and we struggle the identical quantity of rounds for a similar quantity of minutes, we’re paid the identical, I feel inside boxing that is the one type of downfall.
“Ladies are robbed of the additional minute in a spherical, it is laborious to get a end in these two minutes. However you watch Natasha Jonas a few weeks in the past and she or he nonetheless bought the KO so they’re there.”
McCann, who crucially beat Ji Yeon Kim in September amid supposed uncertainty over her UFC future, acknowledges a title shot doubtless stays a number of fights away, although she insists she is keen to struggle for that proper to contend on the prime and is readying herself for any alternative that may current itself.
Although an eventual return to the ring is within the plans, boxing stays on the backburner in favour of a stage she feels she is starting to make her mark on.
“It’s going to all the time be after. I’ve devoted the final 9 years of my life to MMA and once I win the belt, that is my aim anyway, to retire on prime after which go to boxing,” she added.
“If I ever could not get the belt or one thing occurred I wasn’t in a position to struggle for the belt then I’d 100 per cent go to boxing.
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“I simply felt robbed of my time inside boxing, I wish to struggle in Liverpool earlier than I am carried out.”
McCann is shut pals with UFC’s rising star Pimblett, whose first-round victory over Rodrigo Vargas in London prompted a ‘we’re right here to remain’ embrace contained in the cage between the man Liverpudlians.
The Baddy’s impression has been likened to that of Conor McGregor such has been the panache in entrance of the cameras and trailblazing recognition.
With that has come a welcome and probably career-changing injection of self-assurance for McCann.
“I put an excessive amount of strain on myself within the UFC, an excessive amount of strain on myself. And since having him spherical me I’ve taken the strain off, I’ve stopped overcomplicating it and I’ve simply gone again to what made me nice once more,” she stated.
“He’s my little large brother and he offers me confidence and an edge and he makes me imagine. I can do it with out him but it surely’s quite a bit higher doing it with him.
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“Simply seeing his response once I gained after which I bought to sit down with Dana White when he gained and I snuck within the cage and bought to share that second collectively.
“You could possibly simply see how a lot it meant. We’re a bit completely different and we might be like Marmite, you’ll love us or hate us and that is high quality, everyone is entitled to their opinion, it does not matter to us, we’re simply out right here dwelling our greatest life.”
Blinkers on, unadulterated perception has labored successfully for Pimblett since touchdown in UFC, and it seems to be rubbing off on McCann as she hunts down the highest 10.
“After we each bought the £50,000 bonus, on the best way dwelling I used to be like ‘I all the time envisioned this however I by no means thought it will actually come true’,” she added. “And he went ‘I did, I do know the place we’re going’ and typically it is good to listen to him reaffirm.
“You took over the O2 and took over Vegas and it is our factor now, he is such a agency believer and he believes in what he says and what he says he does and it is good to encompass your self with any individual like that.”
