Erin Blanchfield Is Pursuing A ‘Flawless’ Performance

“It's just nice honestly, being home and having those comforts of home and being able to do something I want to do for a really long time.”

On a stacked card, Blanchfield’s bout with McCann is flying a little under the radar, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t come with its own level of hype.

Each time Blanchfield posts on her social media, comments and calls for her to end McCann’s hype train flood underneath. McCann, who is coming off three consecutive performance bonus-winning performances and a couple spinning elbow knockouts, is in the brightest spotlight of her career, but she still sits a few spots below Blanchfield on the flyweight ladder. Blanchfield, who is a decorated jiu jitsu player, understands if people view this fight as a pure striker-versus-grappler matchup, but she knows there’s a few more layers to the game.

RELATED: Fighters On The Rise

“She definitely has some hype behind her right now,” she said. “She has some good wins that she's coming off of. But I think it's a great stylistic matchup for me. I feel I'm very well-rounded and I feel able to deal with her anywhere and take advantage of where I'm strong. So yeah, I'm super pumped about fighting, really. She's just another girl in the rankings.”

In Blanchfield’s most recent outing against JJ Aldrich, the young New Jerseyan found herself on the back foot against the veteran from Colorado, who was able to thwart a handful of Blanchfield’s attempts to grapple and pick her apart from distance.

However, Blanchfield adjusted well, pressured more and secured a high-elbow guillotine that netted her first finish inside the Octagon. The comeback effort – each judge gave Aldrich the first round – only solidified the building hype around her.

“It's kind of nice to have rounds like that, and you're able to go back and learn and get better from it, especially for this fight with Molly, who's a heavy striker.” Blanchfield said. “But I was also super happy to get my first finish in the UFC. That's something I was looking forward to and I was happy that I was able to come back that second round and definitely make a good comeback and come back with the finish.”

All Access | UFC 281: Adesanya vs Pereira

Although the first few years of the flyweight division’s existence have more or less orbited around the existence of Valentina Shevchenko, Blanchfield is part of a fun and intriguing crop of prospects at 125 pounds who could find themselves challenging for the title sooner than later.

Although Blanchfield doesn’t quite have the fanfare of Casey O’Neill or Manon Fiorot around her, she is younger than both breakout athletes, and a win over McCann will only bolster her profile publicly. However, the buzz hasn’t really seeped into Blanchfield’s life all too much other than a handful of friendly interactions in her home state.

“I'm aware of it, but I don't focus on it,” she said. “I feel like people come up to me and they're like, ‘Oh, did you see this article or that?’ I'm like, ‘I haven't really looked.’ I don't look at those kinds of things. I kind of just focus on what I do at the gym, and I let everything show in the fight. Maybe after the fight you indulge in it a little bit, but you can't let that get to your head. You have to keep going.”

She does, however, allow herself to imagine the scenes inside Madison Square Garden when she makes the walk in the same arena her family and friends have gone to endlessly for sporting events, concerts and the like.

View Erin Blanchfield's Athlete Profile

What’s certain is she has an opponent more than willing to dance, and if Blanchfield could draw up a perfect way to make her MSG debut, she has an exact performance in mind.

“I just want it to look flawless,” Blanchfield said. “I want it to almost look easy. That would be the dream, to make someone who is actually very talented and a very good fighter just seem like not much.”