Throughout her MMA career, Sarah Kaufman has found it difficult to focus full-time on fighting.

Currently teaching kids at Zuma Martial Arts in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Kaufman has needed a second means of financial stability to keep her MMA career going. She joined the PFL women’s lightweight roster for an opportunity to win $1 million in the promotion’s 2019 season and has already won her first bout, defeating Morgan Frier via arm-triangle submission in the first round of their PFL 2019, Week 1 contest back in May.

Kaufman is looking at this tournament as an opportunity to secure herself, financially, for life after fighting.

“It hasn’t been, up until this $1 million, hasn’t really been at a lucrative stage where I could have confidently fought full-time and just gotten by or scraped by,” Kaufman told MMA Junkie Radio. “I guess it’s possible, but I want to be doing well, set up my future, so I love what I do, I love teaching at Zuma, but it’s been my steady full-time job the entire time that I’ve been fighting.”

“I teach, and that is my main job, and then fighting is the extra,” Kaufman added. “Over the years, I do not think I would have been able to be in the position I’m at if I were just fighting. I’ve had so many stretches where I couldn’t get fights, where I’ve been underpaid. So, there are very few years where I was making a comfortable living after you pay for training expenses, coaching fees and manager fees and have sponsors not pay you.”

Next up, she takes on Roberta Samad on July 11 at PFL 2019, Week 4 at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, N.J. Kaufman currently leads the way in the PFL’s lightweight season standings after notching a first-round submission win and securing the full six points available. The other big name in the field, two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka Kayla Harrison, also won her first fight, defeating Larissa Pacheco by unanimous decision. She will now take on Morgan Frier, who Kaufman just beat.

Kaufman is a little confused by the format of the fight bookings but sees how people will try to pin her and Harrison head-to-head. A familiar foe will definitely do that.

“It definitely makes for a storyline, that Kayla is fighting someone that I already fought,” Harrison said. “I won it in two minutes and 22 seconds. I can almost guarantee you that she’ll go for a takedown within 10 seconds of the fight starting, trying to get a fast finish.”

“In this format, the ultimate goal is making it to the final, whatever pathway you take to get there,” Kaufman added. “There’s potential someone lost their first fight or won their first fight, lost their second fight, and they make it to the finals. I think of the six fighters who won last year, I think only two of them were undefeated in the season.”

While people are projecting Kaufman and Harrison to meet in the finals, Kaufman said she is just focused on winning all of her fights. She believes that is the most guaranteed route to the $1 million prize.

“I plan on winning all the fights in front of me,” Kaufman said. “If you do win four fights out of four fights you’re guaranteed that $1 million. That’s how I’m looking at it: Not who’s in front of me, but what I have to do.”

For more on PFL 2019, Week 4, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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