Women’s MMA has been at the forefront for the last month. You had the Invicta Fighting Championships 2 card at the end of last month. Then 11 days ago, you had the Strikeforce event headlined by Ronda Rousey vs. Sarah Kaufman, along with Miesha Tate vs. Julie Kedzie and Germaine de Randamie vs. Hiroko Yamanaka.
The Invicta show was headlined by another Olympian, 2004 silver medalist in wrestling Sara McMann. She defeated Shayna Baszler via unanimous decision.
McMann showed improved standup in the fight and wanted to make sure she kept that a secret leading up to the fight. McMann told Bleacher Report:
I didn’t want to let the media know my gameplan because I wanted it to be more of a surprise since nobody would expect me to come out there and use my wrestling to keep it standing. I knew nobody would expect that because it is my weakest area. My striking isn’t my strongest suit, but that’s how you get better by going out there, throwing and learning from it. I knew it was going to be a standup fight, but nobody outside of my camp knew it was going to be that.
The head of Invicta FC, Shannon Knapp, stated during the promotion of Invicta FC 2 that the winner of McMann-Baszler would be fighting for the inaugural bantamweight title at their next show in October. McMann said she won’t be fighting at that show due to her needing rest.
I’m not going to be fighting in October. I had two fights scheduled back to back and to put a third fight on there would be rough. I’m just like, “Look, I’ve been training hard camps and the serious conditioning is wearing down my body.”
I train really hard for these fights and it just ends up breaking the body down a little bit. I said (to Invicta), “Can you guys put me on the next card you have after this October show?”
A lot of comparisons have been made with McMann and Rousey due to their Olympic backgrounds. McMann has a different approach in how she wants her career to go compared to the path Rousey has taken so far.
She (Rousey) has a different approach to her fighting, and that’s the way she has wanted her career to go. I just have a different way I want it to go. It appears she wanted to get to the top as soon as possible. For me, it’s more about the journey. It’s more about fighting all the girls in my division, knowing I’m the best and not just fighting the No. 1 girls. I want to be a well-rounded mixed martial artist. It means forcing myself to fight all different types of fighters and being able to beat them.
I don’t want to get to the end of my career and be 5-0 or 6-0 and say, “Oh I’m retiring now.”
I want to be 15-0, 20-0. I want that longer career and to have fought everybody.
People have said that a bout between Rousey and McMann is destined to happen. McMann knows the long-awaited fight will eventually happen.
I think (the fight) would be unbelievable marketing. People are going to want to see that fight. She’s right now in the top tier of girls, and I’m in the top tier working my way up and through the opponents in front of me. I think it’s an eventuality that it will happen.
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