It was a hot summer day when McCann made her Octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 130 in Liverpool, a night which will live long in the memories of the thousands of Merseysiders in attendance at the Echo Arena.
Darren Till stole the show with a closely-contested five-round war with Stephen Thompson in front of his fellow Liverpudlians, who produced one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever heard at a UFC event.
Evertonian McCann also felt the love that night as she made her walk to the Octagon. But sadly for her, the night didn’t go to plan.
McCann, the former Cage Warriors women’s flyweight champion, suffered a second-round submission to Gillian Robertson, a loss which brought an eerie silence to the arena.
They say time heals all wounds. But for McCann, that wound is still very much open.
“Tough night, it was the worst night of my life,” McCann told Express Sport when reflecting on her second career loss. “When we talk about preparation, the fight camp went sooth. Training was boss, our gameplay was right. I just didn’t execute it.”
Much like any fighter who tastes defeat, an air of self-doubt began to creep in for McCann.
So much so she struggled to admit she competes in mixed martial arts’ premier promotion in the weeks after the fight.
“I just never felt as if I was worthy enough to still say I was in the UFC,” she recalled. “And it took me about three months before I could wear the UFC training kit, wear the gloves. It was a long old time until I felt that, ‘Yeah, I am at that level.’”
Liverpool is a city renowned for rallying around their own during times of need. And its citizens did just that when McCann was feeling at her lowest.
“I lacked self-esteem and self-worth,” the Next Generation Gym product said. “I was walking around with my head down and it was the people of this city who were saying, ‘Shake it off, girl. Come on, you’re made of bigger and better stuff.’”
McCann’s has the opportunity to permanently erase the self-doubt which plagued her next month at UFC Fight Night 147 in London, where she’ll take on Brazilian Priscila Cachoeira.
But for the Cage Warriors alumni, beating Cachoeira is about much more than self-validation.
She said: “I want to change opinions and I want to prove that when you get knocked down and when the chips are down and you feel that you can’t carry on, you can.
“You will get up, you will rise to occasions and you will get what you have worked for.”
The pain of defeat in front of her friends and family has spurred McCann on these last few months and has been the fuel for each and every one of her training sessions.
And the 28-year-old believes a new-and-improved version of herself has arisen from the depths of her recent setback.
“I went to the UFC as a diamond in the rough,” a confident McCann said. “And in the last nine months, we’ve polished that diamond right up. And I’m ready to shine, to glow and to glimmer.
“March 16, expect a first-round knockout or a first-round submission. It is not coming out of the first.
“That’s not arrogance, that’s not cockiness. That’s time spent on the mat, that is time served and that is weights lifted. I know what’s coming.”