Sometimes, history has a funny way of repeating itself.
Earlier this month, just as she did four years ago, Leah McCourt checked her phone after another gruelling training session as she prepared for her next fight.
“I was sitting in a bad mood just after training – exhausted, hungry, and then the same thing happened – I got a text saying ‘you’ve been made the main event’,” McCourt told BBC Sport.
With Fabian Edwards’ rematch against middleweight champion Johnny Eblen postponed, Northern Ireland’s McCourt will now top the card for her bout with Australia’s Sara Collins at the Bellator Champions Series in London on Saturday.
In 2020 the same thing happened as James Gallagher’s bout with Cal Ellenor was called off, meaning McCourt became the first woman to headline a Bellator Europe event in victory over Judith Ruis.
McCourt, 32, called that event a “celebration of women” and she uses the same phrase when describing the upcoming Collins fight at OVO Arena Wembley.
The focus will be on featherweight pair McCourt and Collins, but she wants to make sure all the women who have inspired her to this point in her career also get their chance in the spotlight.
“It’s an honour really because it’s a celebration of women. It’s putting us in the limelight, so shout-out to Bellator for giving us that opportunity to show what we can do,” said McCourt.
“I’m very passionate about supporting women, I’m an ambassador for Women’s Aid in Northern Ireland, my sister fosters two girls, my mum works in a shelter in Belfast.
“I look at them as inspirations. Obviously I get a bit more publicity but the women around me are very strong. They have jobs that are in service to others, they’re not in the limelight.
“London, it’s a great opportunity for everybody to celebrate.”
‘I’d like to fight Cyborg – she’s one of the greats’
It has been 11 months since McCourt’s last fight at Bellator 300, where she stopped American Sara McMann in the first round.
Later on that evening, featherweight great Cris Cyborg knocked out Cat Zingano to defend her title, before facing off with McCourt and setting up a future championship bout between the pair.
That fight never came to fruition, however, with the PFL acquiring Bellator shortly after and taking the featherweight division in a different direction.
McCourt was scheduled to face Ireland’s Sinead Kavanagh in March but withdrew before the fight after breaking a rib and tearing an abdominal muscle.
Cyborg, meanwhile, will face PFL featherweight title-holder Larissa Pacheco on 19 October in a champion versus champion bout.
Rather than waiting to face the winner of that bout, McCourt says she is “putting her number one contender spot on the line” against Collins because she doesn’t want to wait to fight any longer.
McCourt has won eight of 11 fights since making her debut in 2017, while 34-year-old Collins is undefeated, winning her first five bouts as a pro.
“Obviously I was due to fight for the title after beating Sara McMann. I’ve been told to stay ready for October in case anyone pulls out of the title fight, and I’d definitely like to get that shot and be a world champion,” said McCourt.
“I’d like to fight Cris Cyborg, she’s one of the greatest of all time and she’s the champion.
“It’s a tough one, I’m excited for that fight as a fan, it’s a big fight. The title situation, I just think whoever wins that fight is the world champion.”
