Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Former UFC fighter and bare knuckle boxing champion Bec Rawlings is doing everything in her power to ensure a memorable Bellator MMA debut, which includes training alongside UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
Rawlings, 30, hasn’t competed in professional MMA since dropping a decision to Ashlee Evans-Smith in August of 2018. In effort to get back into the mix and prepare herself for a showdown with women’s flyweight fighter Ilara Joanne at Bellator 231 on Oct. 25 from Uncasville, Conn., “Rowdy” is pulling out all the tricks.
The Australian native was most recently seen training alongside McGregor at the Straight Blast Gym (SBG) location in Dublin, Ireland. Rawlings was there to seemingly get some pointers on her standup from the great “Notorious.”
Check out the footage below courtesy of a Rawlings Instagram post:
While we didn’t see much back-and-forth it’s nice to see McGregor welcome the spar and try to teach Rawlings a thing or two on the feet. After all, Rawlings will be facing a fighter with four first-round knockout finishes to her name in her Bellator debut. She could certainly use the extra help in training even after producing a 3-0 record under the Bare Knuckle FC banner.
As for McGregor, it’s good to see him back in the gym as well. Remember, the former UFC champion hasn’t competed since getting choked out by Khabib Nurmagomedov last year and suffering a hand injury earlier this year that has kept him out of business.
We shall see if McGregor’s pointers pay off for Rawlings when she steps inside of the Bellator cage for the first time next month.