Manchester — It was an interesting night in Manchester for Irish strawweight Shauna Bannon at UFC 304.
Bannon came into the fight with a cut, had her coach whack his head off a camera between rounds, but came away with a split decision win over short-notice replacement Alice Ardelean.
“He’s used to the head shots, I have him well trained,” Bannon (6-1) joked following the fight. The incident came between rounds, when one of her corners, fired up, turned and crashed straight into the camera that had been filming the scene.
Luckily, no one was hurt, and the camera appeared to have survived. Though the cameraman may want to stay a few steps back in future.
“Mama B” kicked off the card in Manchester, notching her first UFC win in the process. While some might shy away from being a curtain jerker, it’s a role Bannon embraced.
“I really wanted to be the first fight on this card, I literally said it from the get-go. And then I was switched to the second one for a period of time, and I was like ‘no I really want to be the first fight.’ So to get the first fight and first win for Ireland tonight is really special.”
Bannon was pulling for fellow Irish fighters Caolan Loughran and Kiefer Crosbie to mimic her success, but unfortunately, things did not go their way.
Heading into the fight, Bannon suffered a cut in training that required stitches, though it shouldn’t keep her from returning to action this year. It certainly didn’t keep her out of Saturday’s fight.
“It’s only a little nick, they put two stitches in. I had stitches in it last week, and it healed up pretty fast. I heal fast,” said Bannon. As for her return, “I’d like to go again before Christmas.”
“The one time I didn’t put Vaseline on my eyes, so it’s just unfortunate,” Bannon added about the cut. “If it wasn’t difficult it wouldn’t be me.”
Watch the full UFC 304 post-fight press conference with Shauna Bannon above.
