Two minutes into her fight against Bruna Brasil last July, Molly McCann knew she was in trouble.
A broken leg and several hefty kicks to the body left McCann powerless.
Despite fighting on one leg for the majority of the bout, McCann had some success and still believed at any moment that she could win. The reality is McCann never got going in the way she had hoped she would. The local favourite lost via unanimous decision.
It's a result that took her a long time to get over.
"I've never grieved a fight harder than this one just because I've never been incapacitated that bad whilst fighting before," McCann told ESPN ahead of her return to the Octagon against late replacement Alexia Thainara on March 22.
"There was loads of moments I could have just s--- out but I didn't, I just tried my best, took some and give some. To break your leg with the first strike and engagement to have to fight on ... it was hard."
Constant thoughts of an alternate world where she doesn't get injured so early have occupied McCann's mind ever since. Lonely days and weeks followed. It wasn't until three months after the Brasil fight that she could face returning to the gym.
"The embarrassment and the shame of losing probably didn't leave until October. I could only walk in the gym again properly at the end of October," McCann says.
"You've just got to deal with the shame and embarrassment of not achieving what you wanted, and you put more pressure on yourself than anyone else does."
While nobody can truly be disappointed in McCann -- she will forever be an icon in UK combat sports -- her feelings offer an insight into the mind of a fighter. To train for weeks on end in a gruelling camp only to sustain a crippling injury in the opening exchanges is crushing to say the least.
However, for someone of McCann's status, there is always another fight on the horizon.
"I got back in the gym and started sparring and I was like 'Oh I really miss this.' [It's] weird and sadistic I know ... You like to fight and inflict pain, but it's a game of chess really," McCann says.
London's O2 Arena now beckons.
Along with stablemate Paddy Pimblett, nobody pulls a crowd and has such a passionate travelling fanbase in the UK. "I'm 13 fights deep in the UFC. I know how it goes," McCann says. "I've been a part of the highest highs and the lowest lows, and I can draw a crowd. Anyone can say what they want about my fighting style, or they don't think I'm good or that I am good. But the second I walk out, if you've been there, the atmosphere completely changes."
There have been good days and bad days in London. The good -- a stunning knockout win over Luana Carolina, after which she jumped out of the cage and, evading the grasp of several security personnel, ran into the arms of Dana White -- made her an icon in the sport.
It is the hope of more nights like that which keep McCann coming back for more, something fans are grateful for.
"Tiredness makes cowards of us all," McCann says. "Whether people want to admit that or don't, but you do not want to get out of bed or go to the gym, it's freezing, your body is more sore because it's cold.
"I don't want to say you wish these days away because every fight you get in the UFC is a privilege, it's not a right.
"To get there you have to do the fight camp, that's the cost of greatness."