London, England — For Molly McCann, the past couple of days have made up one of the most tranquil Fight Weeks ever.
“I’m not sure if you have felt the calm, but I feel like this is the calmest UFC I’ve probably ever been a part of. The hotel’s calm, there’s no one here, I’ve just been able to relax,” McCann said Thursday, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press at the UFC London media day. McCann is set to face Julija Stoliarenko in the co-main event of Saturday’s show at the o2 Arena.
“I think it’s my fourth UFC London so it feels very much like home, back at home. I really like being here. I really like London. I like the vibe.”
What “Meatball” Molly also likes is “to not be very apprehensive all the time,” she added. “When you don’t know the layout, sometimes Fight Weeks are very hectic. And I think when Patrick’s here, sometimes everyone wants to fight him before we even get in the cage, so there’s a lot of madness always, but not this time.”
Patrick, of course, is Paddy Pimblett, McCann’s teammate and close friend; the pair are all but inseparable. The “Paddy and Molly” show has become a bit of a staple, in fact, but Pimblett is busy rehabbing from injury, undergoing surgery on his ankle following a fight with Jared Gordon.
McCann, meanwhile, will look to bounce back at UFC London after being thoroughly drubbed by Erin Blanchfield in New York last November.
“I got the worst outcome I’ve ever received in a fight, to be honest,” McCann admitted. After which she stepped back from MMA just a little.
“I went away, I took time off. I kind of had to reset, because I felt like I’d been on this very high trajectory. It was very fast, it was a lot to have to deal with for any human,” she explained. “I just had to ground myself a little bit, and realize my whole world isn’t fighting. I think you all know, fighters live and breathe for this. And sometimes you get consumed, and it’s just ‘I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do this.’ And you don’t feel like you can say no and you can turn things down, and sometimes you’re running on zero.”
“I don’t think any of us really knew the level of her,” added McCann, who felt the loss was easier to take after watching Blanchfield’s next performance, which saw her soundly defeat former champ Jessica Andrade.
A big learning curve for McCann has been tuning out the critics and miscreants online. Which is key, given the deluge of vitriol that comes after a loss.
“It’s a lot easier on the mental when you don’t look at the comments and you don’t have to go there. Because some of the stuff that your read— you would know, because you’ve been around the sport, obviously you see the comments that come through. For me, when Valentina [Shevchenko] lost to Alexa [Grasso], the hate she got online— that’s one of the best who ever graced [the octagon]. When Amanda [Nunes] lost to [Julianna] Pena once, she didn’t hate her. She’s like ‘what’s going on here,’ but the Internet’s just horrific at the moment, no matter if it’s sports, politics, life, anything, there’s no positive in it, so I just think, don’t even go there, you know what I mean?”
Watch the full UFC London media day appearance by Molly McCann above.
