![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753979529_433_grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5d303f40-7464-11f0-94b3-7587e39dbd51.jpg.webp.webp\")
BBC<\/p>\nLindsey Prosser & Jenny Coleman<\/p>\n
BBC News, Liverpool<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n
Determined, dedicated and a favourite with fans, Molly McCann, nicknamed Meatball Molly, has enjoyed a successful career in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).<\/p>\n
But boxing has always been Molly’s first love, and within months of her retirement from MMA<\/a> in March, the 35-year-old announced she had signed with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I used to do MMA because, I was like, I want to make the city proud, I want to make my family proud – and I’ve done all that now,” she said.<\/p>\n “I’m boxing for myself.”<\/p>\n Molly McCann won 14 out of 22 fights during her 10-year MMA career<\/p>\n A former amateur boxing champion, McCann says she made the decision to switch to MMA after her particular boxing category was not included in the Olympic games.<\/p>\n “The highest level for me wouldn’t be an Olympic medal, so I thought what else can I do?” says the athlete.<\/p>\n Her subsequent decade-long career in MMA brought her considerable success.<\/p>\n She won 14 of her 22 fights, and is one of the most successful – and high-profile -women fighters in British MMA history.<\/p>\n But it has taken a toll.<\/p>\n “It’s four Olympic disciplines in one,” she says.<\/p>\n “So imagine how much you have to commit your life to being an Olympic athlete for one Olympic discipline, [then] imagine doing that for four.<\/p>\n “The negative side” she says, was “how heavy it is on the body over long periods of time”.<\/p>\n “There wasn’t a lot of women doing it when I was – so I was constantly training with people who were a little bit heavier than me, and it just took its toll on my body in the end.”<\/p>\n McCann said she is “so proud” to be a scouser<\/p>\n McCann says she hopes she has helped break down barriers for other girls seeking a place in combat sports.<\/p>\n “It was like knocking doors down so girls could go to gyms – and that legacy is in place,” she says proudly.<\/p>\n With over half a million followers on social media, she has been determined to give people an honest insight into the life of an elite athlete. <\/p>\n “I show hard work, I show what I get up to – and if I’m feeling down and I’m not having a good time, I let you know too.<\/p>\n “I think it’s really about being transparent and honest about what life really is.<\/p>\n “What we do isn’t glamorous, but it’s real – and I think it’s important.”<\/p>\n McCann’s first boxing match takes place in Belfast on 13 September, having stated her ambition is to “win a world title within eight fights”.<\/p>\n The 35-year-old has said it “was always the dream” to return to boxing, and hopes to have the support of her Liverpool home crowd behind her.<\/p>\n “I’m just so proud of being a scouser. I’m so proud of everything we’re about, and the support that we show,” she said.<\/p>\n “Me and Paddy [Pimblett] always say it: when you come and watch us fight, it’s always a little bit different – the crowd is a little bit different – and it’s because we bring more scousers with us.<\/p>\n “When we fight, you’d always see we’re looking for the finish – to bring it home and to party with everyone after.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lindsey Prosser & Jenny Coleman BBC News, Liverpool BBC Determined, dedicated and a favourite with fans, Molly McCann,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-57104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"PA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/93a2a6e0-7463-11f0-b68a-b967fcd30e9d.jpg.webp.webp\")
PA<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/e00eaac0-7462-11f0-aa65-13a77a32934c.jpg.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n