Saturday’s pairing with the returning Granger will be McKenna’s second fight of the year, as the Team Alpha Male representative competed on the London card in March.
Fighting for the first time in 16 months, she was a little slow out of the gate and ultimately couldn’t close the gap in her fight with Elise Reed, landing on the wrong side of a split decision verdict that snapped her four-fight winning streak. Now more than four months removed from the stinging setback, the young talent with high personal standards and demands of herself is able to identify some positive elements from the otherwise frustrating night of work.
“London was a big opportunity for me, and I did everything in my power to make it happen, especially given that I thought they would only be going once this year as in previous years,” said McKenna, who punched her ticket to the UFC with a win over Vanessa Demopoulos on Season 4 of DWCS and followed it up with a unanimous decision victory over Kay Hansen in her promotional debut. “It was important to me, not just because it is the largest event for UK fighters, with an insane amount of local support, but also because I knew it was likely one of the last times my father would be able to come and see me live due to his deteriorating health.
“As someone who is naturally very hard on myself and critical, it can be rather hard to find positives in a performance like that. But it certainly lit a fire under me, and I will be emphasizing a lot more urgency on getting those finishes.
“It was also my first time experiencing a full UFC event- entailing a lot more media, the large crowd, lights, cameras, etc.,” she added. “As someone who is naturally very introverted, I am proud of how I took all of that in my stride, if anything.”
