Molly McCann is scheduled to face Lara Procopi on February 6 when the UFC features their first event of 2021 from the UFC Apex. They fight on the undercard of UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Volkov (UFC Fight Night 184) and McCann is getting more than prepared to face Procopi. With the cold weather where most of her camp is taking place, she has been training the way Rocky Balboa prepared to face Ivan Drago in “Rocky IV”.
That’s what McCann told MMANews’ James Lynch when they spoke about the upcoming bout, which will air on the preliminary portion of the card. Sitting in the cold with her “jumper” on, she spoke about training for a fight, that will be happening far from home during a lockdown, and referenced the 1985 film. “Because of lockdowns actual real gyms are shut down,” McCann said, “So, places I’d go to strength and conditioning that has an actual treadmill, are shut down. So it’s like it’s being in a propper Rocky IV.” McCann even has a pair of custom made shorts that resemble the ones Apollo Creed wore in the film that she uses for her preparation.
That is not all McCann is bringing to the cage from that film, apparently, the new plan from her and her team is to let her do what she does best, which is bring the fight to her opponent with a lot of offense. McCann said her last loss might have been due to trying to pressure her into being a more polished version of what got her to where she is but realized that her true style of fighting, is where success has been found.
“I always see myself as the underdog,” McCann said and if fans of the film remember, the character of Rocky Balboa was an underdog at the start of the film series. “Me coach said ‘Go in there and fight in a phone booth.’” This is just what McCann prefers, “I said ‘You’re gonna let me be me?’ He said ‘Yeah’”. She added that her coach told her, “We tried to polish it and make you a counter fighter and that’s not you, so go and do you.”
Apparently, that means to fire away and bring the fight to Procopi which includes a high output of strikes and punishing her for any takedown attempts that may come. It should make for an interesting match.
How do you think the fight will go?
