The Molly McCann vs. Diana Belbita fight at UFC Fight Night 235 was fast and brutal, with the latter screaming in pain before tapping to give her opponent the victory. However, for McCann, her win was unexpectedly “easy,” given that she even tried to be considerate at one point when she noticed Belbita hurt her own eye.
McCann’s performance against Belbita was one of the main highlights of the event last weekend. The fight surprised the audience after McCann finished her opponent through an armbar in the first round of their match in the preliminary card.
McCann targeted the left arm of her opponent, and “The Warrior Princess” screamed in pain while “Meatball” put pressure on the area. After this, the Romanian fighter felt the effect of the armbar, with UFC’s medical team giving her support afterward. The fight was then finished at the 4:59 mark of Round 1, translating to a quick win for the English fighter.
How the entire fight went was a surprise for McCann, especially considering that she took some considerations in attacking the opponent. According to the 33-year-old, there was a moment when Belbita had experienced a problem with her eye, pushing her to avoid this part.
“The second I landed my overhand at the beginning, I was like, ‘Okay, this is gonna be a good night for me,'” McCann said in a post-fight interview. “There was a point where I hit her, and she made a noise ’cause she hurt her eye and couldn’t see. I just took her down then ’cause I didn’t wanna keep on hitting that eye. I think I went a bit soft in there.”
In the end, however, the consideration didn’t give Belbita any help, as McCann made an effective submission attack. As for McCann, the fight did not even give her much challenge.
“I think I shocked myself with how easy it was because I made it out to be so much harder in my head,” McCann said. “I think because I just let go and didn’t have a specific, ‘This is how it’s gonna happen, I’m gonna do this,’ it just flowed. I kept hearing my coach Adam, ‘Three minutes, two minutes, one minute,’ and I was like, ‘F*cking hell, I’m not even out of breath here.’ I think I could have ended it whenever I wanted to.”
