Former Strikeforce champ Marloes “Rumina” Coenen hopes to add another title to her collection when she competes on May 20th at Bellator 155: “Carvalho vs Manhoef” in Boise, Idaho. Coenen battles Julia “The Jewel” Budd for the inaugural Bellator Women’s Featherweight Championship.
Bleacher Report first reported on plans for the title fight, which will be a part of the non-televised Bellator 155 preliminary card. Coenen and Budd were initially set to meet in late 2014. Both women have won two fights inside the Bellator cage leading up to their upcoming 145-pound title tilt in May.
Coenen (23-6-0) captured the Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Championship when she submitted Sarah Kaufman in October 2010, but she soon relinquished the title to current UFC champion Miesha “Cupcake” Tate. She subsequently became the first Invicta FC signee and headlined the promotion’s inaugural card, but Coenen’s bid to capture Invicta FC title gold ended in a crushing loss to Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino in a 2013 rematch. Since then, Coenen has bounced back with a pair of submission wins for Bellator and she now competes to become the promotion’s first 145-pound women’s champ.
Budd (8-2-0) transitioned from Muay Thai to MMA in 2010 and posted a 2-2 record for Strikeforce that included a first-round submission loss to “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. After recovering from injuries, Budd signed on with Invicta FC and became one of the all-female promotion’s top featherweight contenders by winning four straight fights including three inside the distance. When fight opportunities became limited for Budd, the Canadian standout made the decision to join the Bellator roster and she has since earned Unanimous Decision victories in both of her Bellator bouts.
Bellator 155: “Carvalho vs Manhoef” takes place on May 20th at CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho. The event also features a second women’s bout between Veta Arteaga and Jackie Vandenburgh.
(Photo Credit: Bellator)
That’s an interesting take on it – When fight opportunities became limited for Budd, she made the decision to join the Bellator roster. As weak as Invicta’s FW division was (is), it has far more depth than Bellator’s. The real issue for Budd was that after being in the same organization and same weight classes for the past 4 years as Coenen and Cyborg, it was difficult as the #3 ranked FW in the world, to continue coming up with excuses to avoid fighting them.
Now 2 years later, it’s been 6 years that Budd and Coenen have been the #1 amd #2 contenders and it’s only now they’re fighting for the title, and that title fight has been relegated to the non-televised prelims?! Since when in any organization has a title fight been featured in the non-televised prelims? They should be telling Scott where he can stick his belt, especially after each only having had one fight per year for the past 2 years.
They should investigate One Championship. Angela Lee is still in her rookie year there and next month will be fighting her sixth fight and already it will be for the title. Then again, maybe they have very little interest in fighting and are happy with their setup at Bellator.