Just weeks after the UFC will host their first women’s featherweight bout, Bellator will finally crown a champion in their own female 145 lb. division. The promotion announced that Marloes Coenen and Julia Budd will fight for the vacant title on March 3 in Thackerville, OK.
MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani first reported the news of the inaugural title fight. The fight will be main event of the March 3 event, which will go down at the WinStar Casino and Resort.
This is the second time that Budd and Coenen were scheduled to fight for the featherweight title. They were set to fight each other back in May, but Budd had to pull out of the bout due to injury. Conn instead fought Alexis Dufresne, who shocked the MMA world by submitting the former Strikeforce champion in the first round.
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Dufresne’s upset shook up the promotion’s plans, but they now look to get back on track and crown a champion in their women’s featherweight division.
Coenen was set to return to the cage in November, but the fight was cancelled at the last minute when her opponent Talita Nogueira badly missed weight.
Budd has won all three of her Bellator fights and is on a seven fight winning streak, having last lost to Ronda Rousey in a 2011 Strikeforce bout.