Sinéad Kavanagh poured cold water on any suggestion she’d like to move to the UFC - because the standard in Bellator is better.
The world’s number four meets the world’s number five in Leah McCourt in the biggest all-Irish fight MMA has ever seen on Friday night in the 3Arena.
Bellator 275 has lost one of its main events as Waterford’s Peter Queally had to pull out injured of his match with Englishman Kane Mousah.
But the other headlining events, featuring Gegard Mousasi with Austin Vanderford and Inchicore woman Kavanagh’s meeting with McCourt, will take full billing.
Kavanagh is a rare breed of fighter who went toe to toe with arguably the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in MMA history, Cris Cyborg, in Florida in November.
She was rocked by a devastating punch from the Brazilian in round one after putting the former UFC featherweight champion in trouble in the opening minutes.
And the former amateur boxing champion, who is trained by Conor McGregor's coach John Kavanagh, feels she’s in the best division in the world, and the ideal place to fight the best and realise her world title dream.
“Our division is bigger than the UFC. Why would I go there,” Kavanagh tells Dublin Live with a quizzical tone.
Kavanagh was critical of her gameplan going into her first world title shot at Bellator 271 in Hollywood and insists it was a tough lesson, but a necessary one.
And she’s convinced she’ll fight Cyborg for the title again sooner or later, and this time she won’t make the same mistake.
“I learned a lesson. They're good lessons as well. It's easy to fight a brawl, you know? If it was just my boxing, I would have went and won. But it's a lesson learnt.
“I will be the champion. And I'll go there again, I will. And I know I will. But this time I'll have a different gameplan.
“I underestimated her power. I know she has what she has now, obviously. I want to go again.”
