Megan Anderson doesn’t plan on waiting around for her crack at the featherweight title.
Anderson (11-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC) shared the card with fellow top contender Felicia Spencer on UFC on ESPN+ 27 in February, where both women scored first-round finishes.
But ultimately, the title shot was awarded to Spencer, who will face champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 250 on June 6.
That decision didn’t come as too much of a surprise for Anderson, who suffered a stoppage loss to Spencer at UFC on ESPN+ 10 in May 2019. Since then, Anderson has scored back-to-back first-round finishes over Zarah Fairn Dos Santos and Norma Dumont and is looking to remain active until it’s her turn to fight for the gold.
“We knew going into that card since they put Felicia on the card that if she also won, that they would probably give her the title shot first,” Anderson told MMA Junkie. “They seem to like her, they seem to want to push her, which is fine, all (credit) to her. I couldn’t have done anything more. I feel like that was a great performance and it only just gives me experience. I don’t want to wait for the winner, I want to fight consistently.
“I’m only getting better so me being able to fight consistently means that I can improve my skills, I can showcase them and really solidify my position and I guess my reason why I should be fighting for the title. If it’s one more fight, if it’s two more fights, if it’s three more fights, I don’t really care. It’ll happen when it’s supposed to happen and we’ll be ready.”
The issue for Anderson is the fact that Nunes is also the current UFC bantamweight champion, meaning “The Lioness” will likely opt to defend her 135-pound title after the Spencer fight, which would mean a long wait for Anderson.
“If Amanda wins – Amanda doesn’t fight super consistently,” Anderson said. “And after she defends this belt, it will probably be another six months and she’ll probably defend her bantamweight belt and then it will be another six months before she defends her featherweight belt so that’s like a year.
“I don’t want to wait a year, so I want to be fighting consistently and if Felicia wins, it’s a different story. I would love that rematch, I wasn’t in the best place going into that fight and she took advantage of that and she was the better woman of the night and did what she needed to do to get her hand raised. So I think if Felicia wins, it’s a little bit different. But in the meantime, I don’t want to wait.”
There aren’t too many fighters on the UFC women’s featherweight roster, but the former Invicta FC 145-pound champ is ready to get back in there within the next couple of months.
“I was planning to fight again like July, August anyway so end of June, July, if they want me earlier, that’s not a big deal,” Anderson said. “My weight’s pretty low but we’ve told them, so if they come to us with a good matchup that we like, I’ll for sure take it.”
Megan Anderson has no desire to just wait for UFC title shot: 'I want to fight consistently'
