A long-awaited battle between Bellator’s top two ranked female flyweights will take place on May 18 in the Bayou.
Bellator 69 heads to the L’Auberge Casino Resort in Lake Charles, La., and is headlined by a women’s 115-pound bout between No. 1 Megumi Fujii and second-ranked Jessica Aguilar.
“Jessica vs. Megumi is a fight between the two best female fighters in the world and we wanted to schedule it for quite some time,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said in a press release announcing the event.
Fujii, the Japanese-born submission ace, last fought in Bellator in October 2010, losing by split-decision to Zoila Gurgel in a tournament final that also crowned the organization’s champion. “Mega Megu” has three victories in her native Japan since that hotly-debated defeat to Gurgel, who is currently sidelined with a torn ACL.
Aguilar, who lost in the semis of the 2010 tournament to Gurgel, has gone on a four-fight win streak since, including victories in Bellator over Lisa Ellis-Ward and Carla Esparza. She has been eyeing a matchup with Fujii for quite some time and so have many fight fans.
“I am completely focused on becoming the best 115-pound female fighter in the world, and this fight with Fujii is going to go a long way in proving that,” Aguilar said. “I can’t fully put into words how excited I am to get into the cage with Fujii, and show everyone that I am one of the best female fighters in the sport.”
The event, which will also feature the finals of the current Bellator lightweight tournament, will be the fourth in the city and seventh in the state of Louisiana.
Currently four men still remain in the running for the $100,000 prize and 155-pound title shot as Brent Weedman, Rick Hawn, Lloyd Woodard and Thiago Michel Pereira Silva vie for the matchup against Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler.
The night also features a qualifier for Bellator’s heavyweight tournament when Ron Sparks meets Kevin Asplund. L’Auberge fans should be familiar with Sparks, as the massive heavyweight delivered a brutal knockout to Mark Holata at Bellator 52, its last event there in October.
Hometown favourite Josh Quayhagen will also be back in action, looking to stay unbeaten in Bellator when he faces Cliff Wright, Jr., who is riding a four-fight win streak.
“L’Auberge has been a tremendous host for us in the past, and with a fight of this magnitude on the card, I expect fireworks on May 18,” Rebney said.
The organization’s most recent event in the state took place last month and was broadcast for the first time to Brazil. Bellator 61, from Bossier City, La., on March 16, attracted almost 3 million Brazilian viewers.
Rebney said that “far and away exceeded” their expectations in an interview with spotsnet.ca last week.
“From the time we signed the (Brazilian TV) contract (with Nocaute Du Esporte Interativo), we had 48 hours to promote the show. It’s not as if we had a six-week lead-in promotion, so that’s obviously an unbelievable market,” Rebney said. “Our shows typically do 250,000-300,000 viewers in the U.S. To do almost three million viewers in Brazil was a pleasant shock.
“It’s the kind of shock you love to have, like a Christmas shock. We’ve done a lot of international broadcasts with licensed deals around the world. There’s markets all over the world where you wouldn’t necessarily think MMA or Bellator would do extremely well and we have. The Brazil number was just enormous.”
Bellator 65 takes place this Friday at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., the fourth event in the city and second at the venue. Zach Makovsky defends his bantamweight belt against Eduardo Dantas in the headliner and Mike Corey faces Daniel Straus for the right to advance to the featherweight tournament final and face Marlon Sandro, who defeated Alexandre Bezerra in the other semi-final bout last Friday in Windsor, Ont. Two more bantamweight tourney quarter-finals round out the main card (Marcos Galvao vs. Ed West and Luis Nogueira vs. Alexis Vila).
Just added to the card, former UFC fighter Kris McCray makes his promotional debut against Bellator open tryout winner Ailton Barbosa in a preliminary bout. McCray was a finalist on Season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter, losing to Court McGee. And former Bellator champion Lyman Good faces Levon Maynard in a bout to earn entry into an upcoming welterweight tournament.
A scheduled heavyweight title bout between champion Cole Konrad and Eric Prindle has been postponed to Bellator 70 on May 25 after Prindle suffered a hand injury.
