Sarah Payant may have the biggest fight of her life coming up when she gets into the mixed martial arts cage on Nov. 4 at Mohegan Sun Arena as part of Bellator 163.
The Pioneer Valley Regional School alum and Greenfield native looks to stop a three-bout losing streak when she takes on Hannah Regina Merullo in a 125-pound bout that is part of the undercard for the Bellator promotion. The main event bouts will be broadcast on Spike TV beginning at 9 p.m., while the undercard will be broadcast online at Bellator.com and at spike.com. If Spike TV needs to fill time during its national broadcast, it will use bouts from the undercard, so Payant may get on TV. That’s what happened the first time around. The broadcast should also be available On Demand for those who can’t watch live.
Bellator is thought of as the second-largest promotion in the country, behind only the UFC, and this will be the second time Payant is fighting for Bellator, although this time around it’s a very different scenario for Payant.
Payant made her Bellator debut last summer at Bellator 140 in what was her second professional bout. She had won her professional debut and was excited at the opportunity for the exposure that fighting with Bellator would bring. Even though she lost by first-round submission, she did gain a number of fans.
“Last time didn’t go as planned, but a lot of people were watching — the broadcast had over 1 million viewers at its peak — and I got a lot of Instagram and Facebook followers after that fight,” she said.”
The loss dropped Payant to 1-1 in her professional career but she has followed that up with two more losses and comes into this fight with a 1-3 record. She admitted that a loss this time around would be a major blow, and might make it tough to find another opponent.
“I don’t really have anywhere to go if I lose this one,” she said. “I try to put that at the back of my mind, but this could make me or break me. I don’t know if I could lose four in a row.”
With that in mind, Payant, who lives in West Springfield and trains with Gabriel Gladiator, began seeing a sports psychologist.
“I began working with a sports pyschologist after the last fight, because I felt like I had the perfect game plan, and I was sparring perfectly and training perfectly,” Payant said. “She wanted me to get back to doing what I did when I won four straight fights as an amateur. I remember feeling like nothing else mattered back then. I didn’t worry about other things. Maybe that’s because there wasn’t as much at stake, but I need to do what I was doing then.”
What Payant was doing as an amateur was preparing less of a game-plan, and using her natural talent and ability to get her through matches. That might work against Merullo, who is making her professional debut, and has a wild side, according to Payant.
“I’m just shrugging off her being wild and not worrying about it because I’m not going to stress over little things,” she said. “I am just worried about doing what I do best.”
Another change that Payant has undergone since her last fight is that she has begun spending time training with another gymnasium, DCNU in Rocky Hill, Conn. It’s a 45-minute drive from her West Springfield home, but Payant said it gives her different opponents to practice against, and she feels it could also help with her upcoming fight. One other change is that Payant is going to go back down to the 125-pound weight class after fighting her previous two bouts at 135. She initially moved up so that she didn’t have to cut as much weight, but she found that the competition at 135 not only weighed more than her on the day of the fight (she went into her last fight weighing in at 131 on the day of the fight, when fighters can actually put weight back on), and they have been taller than her, which is a disadvantage.
Payant said that there is no room for error when it comes to her nutrition in order to get to 125 pounds for the prefight weigh-in. But even though it is more of a chore, she believes it will benefit her.
One thing is certain. When Payant steps into the cage on Nov. 4, she will leave it all on the line. That’s all she can do, and with some luck, she will get her career back on track in front of a huge national television audience.
Anyone interested in going to Mohegan Sun for the fight can purchase tickets through both the Mohegan Sun box office and through Bellator.com. If you put the name Payant in the promo code, the local fighter will get credit for selling the tickets, which gives her a portion of the sales. You can also look her up on Facebook and purchase tickets directly from Payant via private message. She is also selling T-shirts for $20.