LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 21: (L-R) UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey and Sara McMann face off on stage during UFC 170 weigh-in event on February 21, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
It's impossible to ignore the gaudy numbers in Ronda Rousey's recent fights, where she's finished four opponents in a total of 130 seconds. Her latest victory against Bethe Correia lasted 34 seconds, which was still longer than her two previous fights combined.
The fourth fight in that list was Rousey's win over Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann that ended just 66 seconds into the first round. Rousey connected with a hard knee to the body that dropped McMann to the canvas, and the fight was stopped almost immediately.
But McMann hasn't been able to let go of the way things ended because she has believed since that night in 2014 that the referee stopped things too early.
Since the loss to Rousey at UFC 170, McMann has gone 1-1 with a majority-decision loss in a razor-close fight with No. 1 contender Miesha Tate. As she approaches her fight this weekend against Amanda Nunes at UFC Fight Night: Teixeira vs. Saint Preux, McMann is still contemplating a second fight with Rousey, for a chance to finish what she started.
"Any time I lose, I want revenge," McMann told FOX Sports on Thursday. "I want to avenge the loss, I want to go back and show I'm better than the person. I feel that towards Miesha and Ronda, but obviously the one with Ronda, that was even more controversial stoppage, so I would like that one to be first."
Lately, all the talk surrounding Rousey has been the notion that she's already cleared out the women's bantamweight division in the two years she's been UFC champion. The clearest reasoning behind that logic is Rousey facing Tate for a third time simply because no other contenders have risen to the occasion.
McMann won't argue with Rousey's dominance, and she's not even going to discount her loss to the champion. She just wants another crack at Rousey because she knows she's far better than she was able to show in the first fight.
"For me, I know the fighter I am. Considering the fact that it was stopped after a minute and six seconds, that didn't show the fighter that I am," McMann said. "If they feel like (Ronda's cleaned out the division), it's justifiable. I don't think Alexis Davis is the fighter that she showed, or Cat Zingano; I think that they're much better than that.
"I think especially when it comes to the armbars, that's not a fluke; that's earned. That's something I can say she is heads and tails above other girls executing armbars, and she proved that in judo. That was one of the moves she was excellent at in judo, so if you reach an Olympic level where you have a medal in the Olympics, then obviously it's something that you're very good at."
With her fight this weekend against another top-10 opponent, McMann wants to prove why she belongs back in the hunt to earn another shot at Rousey and the women's bantamweight title.
The first time around, many believed McMann's wrestling could be the ultimate foil to Rousey's judo, but there wasn't a takedown in the whole 66 seconds.
McMann isn't into making predictions about how a second Rousey fight would go, exactly, except to say she knows her hand would be raised at the end of the night.
"Even to this day, people keep coming up to me and they're like, 'That fight was stopped too soon.' I'm just sitting and eating lunch and people are like, 'You should be in there; you're the one that's going to beat Ronda.' I was like, 'I think so, too,'" McMann said.
"That is exactly how I feel. I think I'm the one that's going to dethrone her."
Catch McMann's fight along with the rest of the UFC Fight Night: Teixeira vs. Saint Preux card with our viewing and schedule guide.
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