Ahead of her first fight in almost a year after having two bouts fall through last year, the 40-year-old mother of two is excited to face a top-quality opponent in Julianna Peña.
“It’s going to be an exciting fight. She likes to keep a lot of action and keep the pace,” McMann said. “I think some of my worst fights were the ones where somebody was backing away and being more strategic and being a lot more guarded. If I have somebody else who is willing to engage out there, it makes for a better fight, and I think that she’s game for that.”
McMann admitted to being extremely particular about who her next opponent would be, stating that “sometimes when you just fight whoever, you end up staying really low in the rankings, and I just don’t really have a lot of time for that.”
She said her biggest opponent of late has been time, which is why her decisive January 2020 victory over Lina Landsberg was a turning point for her.
“I think that it really proved a lot to me. I knew what I was capable of, but I still had yet to prove it,” McMann said. “Now I can really evaluate myself and not look at myself as someone who just had a baby or someone who’s now 40, but say, ‘what actual athlete are you?’ and then work with that.”
