Rivalries: Leah McCourt

Bellator MMA has always seemed ready, willing and able to push Leah McCourt.

The 32-year-old judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt will do battle with the undefeated Sara Collins in the Bellator Champions Series 5 main event this Saturday at OVO Arena Wembley in London. McCourt, who has not fought in nearly a year, enters the cage having alternated wins and losses in each of her past four outings. “The Curse” was forced to withdraw from a March 22 assignment at Bellator Champions Series 1 after she suffered broken ribs and a torn oblique in training.

As McCourt approaches her forthcoming clash with Collins, a look at some of the rivalries that have helped shape her career to this point:

Manon Fiorot

Some wins age better than others. Strategic clinches and takedowns paired with positional advances and ground-and-pound carried McCourt to a split decision over the debuting Frenchwoman as part of the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 94 undercard on June 16, 2018 at Lotto Arena in Antwerp, Belgium. It was a back-and-forth affair. Fiorot was clearly superior in the standup exchanges but struggled to manage distance and too often wandered into tie-ups. McCourt did her best work in Round 1, where she executed two head-and-arm throws, moved to a mounted crucifix and piled up points with short elbows and punches. The second and third rounds were too close to call, as they traded dominant positions on the mat and set off scrambles that resulted in something of a seesaw effect. Once the dust settled, two of the three cageside judges submitted scorecards for McCourt. It remains the only blemish on the Fiorot resume, as she has since rattled off 12 straight victories and cemented herself as the No. 1 contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s flyweight division.

Sinead Kavanagh

The SBG Ireland mainstay fought through a significant knee injury to nail down a unanimous decision over McCourt in the Bellator 275 co-headliner on Feb. 25, 2022 at 3Arena in Dublin. Scores were 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27. McCourt executed a first-round takedown, only to encounter considerable resistance on the canvas. Kavanagh turned to an attempted guillotine, then transitioned to a kimura that kept her counterpart busy for several tense minutes. She appeared to be closing in on a finish at one point, though McCourt ultimately survived. Kavanagh delivered multiple takedowns and pestered the decorated grappler with body-head punches for much of the middle stanza, but she retreated to her corner for the rest between rounds in visible distress, clutching her knee and barely able to stand. McCourt capitalized across the final five minutes, as she attacked the leg with kicks, incorporated a takedown and climbed to full mount. However, in her haste to hunt for a leg lock, she surrendered position. In a display of sheer will, Kavanagh plowed into mount, cut loose with punches and snuffed out a potential rally.

Cat Zingano

The former Ring of Fire champion cemented herself as the No. 1 contender at 145 pounds with a unanimous decision over Leah McCourt in the three-round Bellator 293 co-main event on March 31, 2023 at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California. All three cageside judges scored it for Zingano: 29-28, 30-27 and 29-28. McCourt was her own worst enemy. She moved to advantageous positions in all three rounds—she had the UFC veteran in real danger in the middle stanza, where she climbed to full mount and unsheathed her ground-and-pound—but too often squandered it through undisciplined scrambles and untimely reversals. The relentless Zingano connected with the most impactful strike of the match in Round 3, where she opened a diagonal gash between the Next Generation MMA standout’s eyes with a beautifully timed knee at close range. It was a fitting exclamation point to another successful outing and sewed up the decision.

Sara McMann

McCourt put away the 2004 Olympic silver medalist with punches in the first round of their Bellator 300 women’s featherweight prelim on Oct. 7, 2023 at Pechanga Arena in San Diego. McMann succumbed to blows 4:30 into Round 1. Operating in the shadows of the Usman Nurmagomedov-Brent Primus headliner, McCourt twice took down the decorated freestyle wrestler and showed no fear in engaging her at close range. The tactics had to have caught McMann by surprise. McCourt stood at one point, kicked at the Takoma Park, Maryland, native’s legs and powered back into guard behind elbows and punches. From there, she increased the intensity and oomph of her ground-and-pound, forced McMann to turn away from contact and prompted the stoppage with an endless stream of unanswered punches.