After years of struggling with the business of MMA, veteran Sarah Kaufman is trying to embrace its fickle nature.

“MMA is about what have you done literally yesterday,” she told MMAjunkie Radio. “Not what have you done one month ago. (It’s) what have you done five months ago, what was your last big win. It’s literally what you’ve done yesterday.

“I feel I’ve turned a new leaf and freed myself to enjoy that and embrace that side of it now.”

Kaufman (19-4), who faces Katharina Lehner (7-0) in Friday’s Invicta FC 29 headliner, was once one of the most promising women’s bantamweights in MMA. Then Ronda Rousey came along.

Kaufman has spent years watching opponents who turned her down get big opportunities in the UFC. Now, the 32-year-old Canadian is trying to fight her way back to the big show on her own terms.

At Invicta FC 29, which stream on UFC Fight Pass from Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City, Mo., she gets the chance to halt the momentum of an undefeated up-and-comer whose main goal is use her as career leverage. Meanwhile, Kaufman’s trying to win her first title after a short stint as the women’s bantamweight champ in the now-defunct Strikeforce promotion.

Kaufman and Lehner face off for the vacant Invicta FC bantamweight belt. It’s been six years since Kaufman has worn gold.

After all the dead ends Kaufman has encountered in finding opposition, Kaufman doesn’t look at her lesser opponent with the bitterness of a seasoned vet. Instead, she appreciates there’s a fighter who’s willing to face her.

“(Lehner is) willing to take the fight, which I can’t say for everybody,” Kaufman said.

After all, Kaufman is in a tough position. More-experienced opponents don’t want to face her because they know they could lose, and less-experienced opponents don’t want to face her because she’s too tough an opponent.

More than ever, Kaufman now appreciates that so much of her career has come down to timing. In that regard, she’s faced some difficult circumstances that have hindered her path to the top. The loss of her belt to now-ex UFC champ Rousey in Strikeforce put her in an awkward place when the promotion folded and its talent was absorbed into the UFC.

“I was then in the position with the UFC to not get fights, given I would beat the girl that they wanted to fight Ronda, this weird inter-spider web of what MMA is and MMA math,” she said.

Kaufman also suffered critical setbacks in the industry-leader after losing via submission to Alexis Davis and via split decision to onetime women’s bantamweight title challenger Valentina Shevchenko.

Released from her contract, Kaufman reset her career on the local scene before signing with Invicta FC. She also embarked on a new path in her training, moving to the famed Roufusport camp in Milwaukee, where Duke Roufus trains a bevy of MMA standouts.

“It’s funny because (my former coach) Adam (Zugec) can tell me something for 10 years – ‘Hey, do this,’” Kaufman said. “And I’ll be like, ‘OK, I’m doing it.’ And he’s like, ‘You’re not doing it.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m trying to do it. I swear, I’m not ignoring you.’

“And then you can go somewhere else, and Duke can say, ‘Hey, do this,’ and it’s literally the exact same thing said in a different way, and for whatever reason, it clicks. I feel like going down there has opened myself up and loosen up and to bring out different things that are all still the same me.”

Kaufman is known as a fierce cage competitor who once slammed her opponent unconscious and then issued a stern callout to her opposition. These days, she’s a lot more world-weary and acquainted with the ups and downs of an MMA career. But she is more invested than ever in maintaining a positive outlook about her journey.

It may not be the linear path she imagined, but all of her experience gives her the confidence to keep pushing. She knows at any time, she just might get propelled back to the big show.

“I feel like now is my time to just do what I want, feel great in there, and let my performances speak for themselves,” she said.

For more on Invicta FC 29, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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