How 'Meatball' – who loves Guinness and Italian – cuts weight expertly

Molly McCann was given ‘Meatball’ nickname after working in Subway, loves Guinness and co-owns a new Italian restaurant… but she has weight cutting and diet down to a fine art as she hits scales ahead of UFC London

  • Molly McCann was given ‘Meatball’ nickname when she worked at Subway
  • She likes to indulge outside of training camps and co-owns Italian restaurant
  • But ‘Meatball’ now has weight cutting and dieting down to a fine art  

You might expect a fighter nicknamed ‘Meatball’ to struggle when it comes to hitting the mark on the UFC scales. 

But Molly McCann, who clocked in at 125-pounds on the dot on Friday morning ahead of her co-main event in London, has weight cutting and diet down to a fine art – only cheated once at Paddy Pimblett’s wedding. 

It hasn’t always been so easy for McCann, who previously described herself as a ‘skinny fat thing’ and was given the nickname ‘Meatball’ when she worked at Subway, long before she emerged as a cherished fan favourite in the UFC. 

In fact, she missed weight on her UFC debut and had to sacrifice 20 per cent of her purse as punishment. 

It embarrassed her at the time and said: ‘I won’t give you an excuse, I have never missed weight in 29 fights, and today is the first time I have. On my part I’d like to apologise, I didn’t give up, I stayed cutting until the final moment.

Molly McCann made weight on Friday morning ahead of her co-main event at UFC London

‘Meatball’ now co-owns her own Italian restaurant in Liverpool called Polpetta

McCann has diet and weight cutting down to a fine art and has only missed the mark once

‘I would also like to apologise to the fans. No excuses, the fight goes ahead and tomorrow I get to make up for the lack of professionalism.’

And that was the one only one blot on her otherwise spotless copybook. 

Outside of training camps, McCann is known to like a Guinness and a night out, all part of the relatable charm that has made her so popular. 

McCann recently told the Telegraph which super-power she’d choose, saying: ‘To teleport. I’d want to go to the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and have a nice pint. That’s where I want to be right now. I always love a good Guinness.

And of her dream dinner: ‘I’d have pil pil prawns to start and my main would be carbonara – I love pasta. Dessert would be something like cookie dough. 

‘I’d invite Gordon Ramsay or Gino D’Acampo because we’d end up having a laugh. Me and Gino would definitely have a laugh – we wouldn’t be able to understand each other.’

She also recently founded an Italian restaurant in Liverpool called ‘Polpetta’ that she co-owns. At the launch event she told the Echo: ‘Ten years ago, I was working in the Subway on Bromley Street and it’s where I got my name. Looking at this now, I’m just completely blown away by the city showing up for me. 

‘This isn’t just a flash in the pan. [Joel and I] worked so hard on this, on brand, the menu, the ingredients the taste, and we’ve brought the best little group of chefs together that we can find. It’s really nice to know that the city has shown up to support me like this.

McCann missed weight on her UFC debut but has never repeated the same mistake

McCann, pictured after a win with Paddy Pimblett last year, is in elite fighting shape

The 33-year-old added: ‘We went for a drink and we came for a Guinness. We actually wanted to open a butcher’s, something like Molly’s meats house, but then we thought, ‘What’s was our favourite food?’ and it’s Italian – I’m the meatball, let’s do this. 

‘We’d meet every Thursday in Punch Tarmey’s for a Guinness and we’d come up with a little bit more on a little bit more.’

Avoiding too much over-indulgence on her own produce and steering clear of the Guinness is of course key to McCann getting in tip top shape during training camps. 

She lit up London twice last year with two incredible knockouts coming from spinning elbows and is gunning for the same result against Julija Stoliarenko on Saturday night. 

Her weight-cutting has developed over the years and McCann is now guided by a specialist company called Applied Nutrition. 

‘Sports science changed my life in a really positive way,’ she explains. ‘I literally felt that I’d hit the jackpot, my mental health was in the bin after losing my first fight but sports science brought me back.

‘Previously if I didn’t feel like I was absolutely exhausted after every session then I didn’t think I was training hard enough.

‘Now I know I was putting my body under too much stress and not recovering well.

‘Normally I’d cut 14lbs in fluid on fight week. I was a skinny fat thing, but to look at me you’d still think I was in good shape. 

‘I made the weight the night before with none of that. I have to credit all the staff for getting me in that shape.’

Now the weight cut is a streamlined process and where some fighters have to wrap themselves in foil in a sauna and brutalise their bodies to sweat down to the correct limit, McCann yesterday spoke about how she was even able to eat carbohydrates the day before the weigh-ins. 

The Liverpool fan favourite was blown away by the reception to her Italian restaurant opening

McCann was seen drinking whiskey from the bottle after her victory last year

Away from the rigorous discipline in training camp and calories counted, McCann is the life of the party when the shackles can come off. 

She famously yelled into the mic after a win: ‘I just want a bevvy, lad!’ 

And she started downing a bottle of Howler Head whiskey after her win against Luana Carolina last year, thrilling the crowd. 

‘Meatball’ still had the bottle with her in the post-fight press conference, admitting she was ‘bladdered’, alongside Paddy Pimblett, who was scoffing a pizza. 

In the hours ahead, McCann will be rehydrating and fuelling up for the battle ahead. 

It will be her first event co-main event spot on a UFC card and the spotlight is shining ever brighter at the O2 Arena. 

The venue has been a happy hunting ground for McCann in the past and she’ll be hoping to devour Stoliarenko before heading back to Liverpool to continue the feasting.

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