Athletes
Cory McKenna Is A Student Of The Game
In Her First Fight Since 2022, Welsh Strawweight Cory McKenna Is Eager To Return To The Octagon At UFC Fight Night: Tuivasa vs Tybura
Blame Urijah Faber. Strawweight prospect Cory McKenna used to have one of the best nicknames in the business with “The Hobbit,” but as soon as it was there, it was gone after a suggestion from the UFC Hall of Famer.
“I let him pick ‘Poppins,’ which is what he was working very hard to get to stick,” laughed McKenna. “He would call me it all the time and I was like, ‘It's not going to stick.’ And then eventually, I said, ‘All right, I'll change it.’”
“Poppins” it is, and yes, it’s grown on the Welsh prospect.
“I've been quite enjoying Poppins,” McKenna said. “I don't mind it.”
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Bilbo Baggins, Frodo and the rest of the gang won’t be happy, but McKenna and her Team Alpha Male squad are, and that’s all that matters. Actually, nicknames don’t matter at all when a fight is coming up and, finally, after 15 months on the sidelines, McKenna has got herself a fight, this Saturday against Jaqueline Amorim. It’s been a while, but that doesn’t mean the 24-year-old has been sitting idle over the last year and change.
“There's definitely been some difficulties that come with it, but I'm in the gym every day regardless, rain or shine,” said McKenna. “And I've done a lot inside and outside of MMA over the last year or so when I've not been able to fight, which has definitely helped. I'm a very driven and focused individual, so I never really had an issue with focus per se, but it’s definitely a little disheartening to have all this time off and have to be dealing with all the stuff that I've been dealing with. But I'm really excited to be coming out on the other end, and hopefully it'll be worth it.”
Before the layoff, McKenna was on a roll, making three walks to the Octagon in 2022, when she bounced back from a split decision loss to Elise Reed in March to submit Miranda Granger and decision Cheyanne Vlismas. That makes her 3-1 in the UFC since she earned her contract with a victory over Vanessa Demopoulos on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2020.
Tuivasa vs Tybura Main Event Breakdown
Must be that California sunshine, something that’s been a part of McKenna’s life since DWCS, when she made the full-time move to train with Faber and Team Alpha Male in Sacramento.
“I’m very fortunate to be able to be out here pursuing my dreams,” she said. “This has been a goal of mine since I was a kid, so I'm just out here trying to live my best life, live to the fullest, and train hard and focus on my goals. Obviously, there's aspects of stuff that I miss from back home, but I'm also really grateful to be able to be out here doing what I love.”
And she’s kept her Welsh accent in the process…or has she?
“It's funny, because I grew up between England and Wales, so I feel like I never had a strong accent no matter where I was,” she said. “I would always get grief, they'd be like, ‘Oh, you sound like this, you sound like that.’ And then when I started coming out to America, everybody starts telling me I sound American. So now I'm just like, I don't know what I am; you guys just have to accept me at face value. (Laughs) I've got a weird accent - sometimes I sound Californian and sometimes I sound Welsh, sometimes I sound English. I'm just a mutt.”
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McKenna laughs, obviously in a good mood as her return draws closer. And though most will speculate about what happens for her career with a win this weekend, she’s not one of them trying to predict the future.
“I told everyone that I refuse to speak on how active I'm going to be,” she said. “I've learned the hard way that every time I think I've got momentum back, there's always obstacles that can come up. The sport's brutal.”
That’s some truth right there, because often, the toughest fight is just getting to the Octagon. That’s not even including the volatile nature of social media, where sometimes you’re not even as good as your last fight if it happened 15 months ago.
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“Everyone loves you when you win in, they forget about you when you're hurt, and people don't understand that we're all human,” McKenna said. “We've got stuff going on in our personal lives, sometimes we get hurt in the gym, and we are not robots. We get sick, we get hurt, stuff like that. And this last year really was a sign of that, and I learned the hard way to take things as they come and focus on the next task ahead. So, for me, that's Jaqueline Amorim on March 16th. And then, after that fight, if I can stay active, I would absolutely love to, but I'm also not going to make any promises for things that I can't control.”
What McKenna can control happens within the Octagon on Saturday, and it’s what takes place there that makes her love this sport and the lifestyle attached to it.
“I kind of got addicted to the lifestyle of taking care of myself and pushing myself towards a goal,” she said. “I love learning new things every single day, and with MMA, there's so much that goes into it. So I'm constantly evolving, constantly learning, and pushing myself to different levels. And I have a love and a passion for the sport. It's not fighting with that old school mentality, like, oh, it's just a fight for me. I'm a student of the game. I love to learn, I love to see myself grow and I love to push myself to new limits. And fighting gives me the platform to do that.”
That’s good to hear, especially since back in the early days of the sport, there was a sizeable part of the fighting population who told me that they did this because they could punch someone in the face and not get arrested.
McKenna laughs before unleashing her mic drop.
“The people I want to punch in the face don't fight.”
UFC Fight Night: Tuivasa vs Tybura took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 16, 2024. See the final Prelims and Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass.
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