Sara McMann (blue) flips her opponent Lili Meng of China in freestyle wrestling at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. - Al Bello
It looks like 2004 Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann will make her UFC debut this April, as she is expected to face Germany's Sheila Gaff at UFC 159 in New Jersey.
Another women's MMA fight looks to be set for a UFC PPV. German flyweight Sheila Gaff has been signed by the UFC, and will move up to bantamweight to face undefeated Sara McMann in April. Groundandpound.de has the details on Gaff's signing:
A dream came true for Germany’s best female MMA fighter – a dream wich seemed impossible just a few months ago: Sheila Gaff (10-4-1) is going to fight in the UFC. Today Groundandpound.de learned of her contract signing with the world’s biggest MMA organization. Gaff’s Octagon debut is set for April 27th at UFC 159 in Newark, New Jersey. Her opponent is supposed to be undefeated Sara McMann (6-0), an Olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling. Gaff has already agreed to the bout, though official bout agreements haven’t been signed yet.
McMann, like UFC champion Ronda Rousey, is an Olympic medalist. While Rousey took home the bronze medal in judo in 2008, McMann won silver in women's freestyle wrestling (63 kg) in Athens back in 2004. She also took home gold in the 2003 and 2007 Pan American Games in the same discipline. Her MMA career has been a big success so far, with a perfect 6-0 record and recently a FOTN performance and unanimous decision win over Shayna Baszler in the main event of Invicta FC 2.
Gaff, aged just 23, possesses a highly aggressive style of fighting. Of her 10 victories, 9 of them have come inside 2 minutes of the opening round. One of those quick wins was this controversial 10 second KO over Jennifer Maia last March, when she did not touch gloves to start the fight and instead clocked her with a right hand before unleashing several more strikes to put Maia out cold.
Once this fight is official it is likely that it will air on the UFC 159 preliminary card, but whether it will be on FX or Facebook is unknown.
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