The road to a UFC women's bantamweight title fight will have a familiar stop for Canadian Sarah Kaufman as she looks to get a step closer in a bout against fellow Canadian Alexis Davis, a fighter she's already defeated twice.

Already holding victories over Davis in 2007 and 2012, getting used to the idea of having to get into the octagon with her a third time was something Kaufman had to adjust to.

"At first it was frustrating and challenging having everyone say 'oh you're fighting Alexis again why's that?'" Kaufman told TSN.ca. "Alexis is one of the toughest fighters in the UFC 135 pound division and yes I've beaten her twice, but that doesn't guarantee that I'll beat her a third time, I need to put in the work and put in the training and also show up."

"If you don't show up against Alexis Davis you aren't going to have an easy night and I'd like to have an easy night, so I've put in the work with my team at Zuma as well as bringing in some amazing people to train with and I feel very lucky this camp as gone as well as it has."

As far as planning to face a fighter for the third time, Kaufman is going to treat it like any other fight against a skilled opponent standing in the way of her ultimate goal.

"At this point I'm not even thinking about the fact that we've fought twice before, I'm  just looking at this like let's get in there get this done, put Alexis Davis behind me, make a strong statement and get back in the running for that UFC title."

While Kauffman is trying to build her way to a shot at the gold, Davis' last fight was an abbreviated shot at one, a 16 second TKO loss to champion Ronda Rousey.  

Before accepting the Davis fight, Kaufman tried many different methods to find an opponent including an Instagram challenge to Miesha Tate that included an assault on the Tacoma, Washington fighter's favourite pastry.

 

Don't be scared, Cupcake. @mieshatate @ufc @seanshelby

A video posted by Sarah Kaufman (@sarahkaufmanmma) on

As far as the UFC's top contenders go, the Canadian already holds a victory over Tate, a 2009 unanimous decision, as well as a no-contest with Jessica Eye that was originally a spilt decision loss.

The 29-year-old believes she is in the same class as the top bantamweights and plans to be ready when her chance comes along or if a fill in is needed in any of the upcoming title or number-one contender bouts.

"I see myself right up there, I honestly believe that I am better than the rest of the division and that I would beat Bethe (Correia) and Miesha (Tate) and Jessica Eye."

"I have no doubt that everyone that is ranked above me; I would be winning those fights.  At this point I'm focused on Alexis Davis and come post victory, I really want to zero in on those next targets. If one of them pulls out of those fights I want to be ready to step in and say this is my title shot or this is my title contendership and I want to be in there and I know that I deserve to be in there, but it is all going to ride on April 25th and coming out with a great fight, great performance and great victory."

If you follow Kaufman on twitter you will see that she is not only an MMA fighter and fan but also a huge rugby fan.  The Victoria native works with the Canadian women's rugby sevens team and has also spent time training with the men's team, gaining an admiration for the toughness they show on the field.

"To be able to see such a strong group of women getting together and I actually work with them now on their combat training working on their wrestling and their tackling, it's so much fun to be able to sit and watch them compete."

"I think they're crazy, way crazier than us in MMA.  They're crazy, I'm not that psycho to get on the pitch and run full force into someone but it's an amazing game athletically to watch and it's so fast, so much excitement in a short period of time."

Kaufman and Davis will provide a third bout of excitement in their UFC 186 bout, which will be part of the prelims broadcast on TSN1, Saturday at 8pm et/5pm pt.