Struggle to Find Fights Took Sara McMann to ‘Poopy’s Pub & Grub’

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Sara McMann, on “Cheap Seats,” discussing her struggle to get fights:

“My MMA career was on the rocks, actually, going from amateur to pro. I found three amateur fights. I was having a really difficult time. … I had probably over 12 promotions try to have me on their show and it fall through and the opponents drop out and people saying, ‘I’ve been matchmaking for 10 years and I’ve never had this kind of problem.’ I was thinking, ‘Man, I actually think that I’m not going to be able to fight.’ I wasn’t able to fight some of the higher-level girls that would accept the fight just because they had so many more fights than me. Commissions wouldn’t approve it, and nobody else who had less than five fights was going to say yes.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I think I’m not going to be able to do this.’ I was completely shocked. It was really stressful at first, and then luckily some of the girls stepped up to the plate and said, ‘I’ll take the challenge,’ and came through, and I fought with them. I give total respect to them. They helped my career, and I hope that I helped theirs. …

“One of my amateur shows, I fought at Poopy’s Pub & Grub, at a biker bar, in the Skid Mark Arena. And it was outdoors. And it was raining. … But I had to do it. She was the only girl that would fight me, so let’s do it. In the rain.”