Molly McCann vs. Erin Blanchfield added to UFC 281

‘Meatball’ is headed to The Big Apple. Molly McCann shares the Octagon with Erin Blanchfield at UFC 281, the upcoming pay-per-view event scheduled for…

By: Kristen King | 10 months ago
Molly McCann vs. Erin Blanchfield added to UFC 281
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

‘Meatball’ is headed to The Big Apple.

Molly McCann shares the Octagon with Erin Blanchfield at UFC 281, the upcoming pay-per-view event scheduled for Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York. ‘Cold Blooded’ announced the fight on Instagram.

McCann returns for her third appearance this year after two ‘Performance of the Night’ awarded knockouts. The Liverpudlian earned a ‘Knockout of the Year’ contender in front of a raucous crowd at the O2 Arena in London with a spinning back elbow KO of Luana Carolina at UFC London: Volkov vs. Aspinall this past March. She returned to the same venue and location for her next fight at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall, where she finished Hannah Goldy by first-round TKO courtesy of a spinning back elbow (again!) and follow-up punches.

The 32-year-old now holds two of six spinning elbow knockouts in UFC history. Ricardo Ramos (x2), Jiří Procházka and Dong Hyun Kim hold the other four. Fresh off her win over Goldy, McCann also broke through the official rankings for the first time and landed at No. 15.

Blanchfield has yet to taste defeat since joining the UFC nearly a year ago. The 23-year-old defeated Sarah Alpar and Miranda Maverick at UFC Vegas 37 and UFC 269, respectively. She followed those performances up with a second-round guillotine choke of JJ Aldrich at UFC Vegas 56 this past June. Blanchfield is 9-1 as a professional, with her only loss coming to Tracy Cortez at Invicta FC 34 in 2019.

With the addition of McCann vs. Blanchfield, UFC 281 has three confirmed fights now. It is headlined by a middleweight fight between reigning champion Israel Adesanya and No. 5 ranked contender Alex Pereira. Plus, a proposed fight between Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more updates to the event as they become available in the coming weeks.

Share this story

About the author
Kristen King
Kristen King

Kristen King is a writer for Bloody Elbow. She has covered combat sports since 2016, getting her start with outlets such as FanSided, MyMMANews and MMA-Prospects. She joined the BE team in 2020, covering a mix of news, events and injuries. In her time with BE, Kristen has created ‘Fright of the Night,’ a series that highlights some of the worst injuries in the sport.

More from the author

Recent Stories