“Every fighter knows this: you can’t locate the feeling of going out for an actual UFC fight,” continued Montague. “You can do all the other training and preparing mentally and physically, but that’s the one part that no matter how many times you do it, you even hear the veterans say you’re still going to walk out, and it’s like, ‘Ugh — what am I doing?’
“The closest we can get to it are mental reps and physical reps outside of the fight itself, but once you get there, it doesn’t matter —you’re in it.”
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Her bout in September marked the first time in her professional career that Montague had not won her fight inside the distance by rear-naked choke, and while winning quickly and maintaining her 100-percent finishing rate would have been lovely, the American Top Team representative knows that in the long run, logging 15 minutes of cage time straight away is going to be invaluable as she looks to continue working forward in the bantamweight division.
“It’s huge, right?” she said. “On the one hand, to finish people, get them in the first round, you’re in and out of there, but I’m someone that has only had seven pro fights, and that time in the cage is priceless.
“It’s not like I intentionally didn’t finish the girl — I was trying pretty hard to — but to get all that time in that setting, having two breaks with the coaches coming in and getting that information is super-valuable going forward; you know what it looks like, you know what it feels like, you know what your body is doing. That experience is massive, and to come out of that and get the win, get nine stitches before 9 a.m. — it’s good.”