Sara McMann agreed with UFC 159 boos, ref's standup

Sara McMann prepared herself to be miserable at UFC 159. From the schedule to the weight cut to the crowd itself, the UFC newcomer told herself this past weekend’s event would be a nightmare.

Her little reverse psychology experiment worked just fine, though, and her April 27 UFC debut proved a surprisingly joyful experience.

“I think that I always like to err on the side of caution,” she told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “So I told myself, it was going to be, ‘Ugh, your schedule’s going to be packed with media stuff. It’s going to be frustrating, and you’re going to have a hard weight cut.’ I kind of prepared myself for all of these inconveniences and tons of pressure and the crowd bothering me. I got that all in my head so that if happened, I wasn’t taken off guard.

“It also set me up to enjoy a lot of stuff. I was really surprised how many things I really enjoyed.”

Of course, by scoring a first-round TKO win over German bantamweight Sheila Gaff (10-5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), which aired on UFC 159's FX-televised prelims from Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., McMann (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) knew little else would matter anyway.

Still, it wasn’t completely smooth sailing for McMann, an Olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling. After scoring an immediate takedown on Gaff, the pace stalled as McMann was tied up from the bottom.

That led to a substantial amount of booing, though McMann said she took no issue with it.

“The only times I actually hear it is when I agree with it,” she said. “If someone is locking up my hands and I can’t free my hands, I’m like, ‘Yeah, would you stand it up?’

“I actually did [agree with the standup]. The only times [the fans] want us stood up is when I’m not doing something. And when I’m not doing something, it’s because I can’t. I’d rather have a fresh start (standing up).”

The boos soon turned to cheers anyway. After a second takedown, McMann secured the mounted crucifix and rained down dozens of blows to force the TKO stoppage at the 4:06 mark of the opening round.

McMann said she felt no real octagon jitters during the performance. The early takedown was well planned – “I can take down people down whenever I want to, so why wouldn’t I choose to very quickly against somebody who’s a good striker?” she said – and not a matter of panicking or wanting to find a comfort zone. Once on the mat, natural instincts kicked in.

In fact, after working her way up the regional circuit and securing a UFC contract, she feels like she’s now right where she belongs.

“My adrenaline was going the whole time pretty constant,” she said. “Actually, a little bit after the fight, I looked at my coaches, and I was like, ‘I’m still in the fight. I’m not calmed down whatsoever yet.’ It was still another couple of minutes before I got back to the regular real world.”

For complete coverage of UFC 159, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.