Dutch submission specialist Marloes “Rumina” Coenen earned another impressive win in her return to action tonight at Bellator 141 in Temecula, California. The former Strikeforce champion submitted Australian standout Arlene “Angerfist” Blencowe with a second-round armbar on the main card.
Coenen, who made a successful Bellator debut in October, dominated tonight’s featherweight bout with Blencowe from start to finish en route to the tapout victory. Elsewhere on the card tonight, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane and Adrienna “A.J.” Jenkins also picked up key wins in featured women’s bouts.
Coenen (23-6-0) opened the fight with a hard leg kick, but Blencowe (6-5-0) answered back with two combinations that knocked Coenen off-balance. She regained her footing and took Blencowe down into side control. Blencowe gave up her back and Coenen landed punches while trapping her in a body triangle. She tried to set up a rear-naked choke in the final minute, but Blencowe defended until the bell.
Coenen landed a nice right hook early in the second round and she dragged Blencowe down after taking her back. Coenen transitioned from a rear-naked choke to an armbar, but she lost the position and the fight returned to the feet. After a failed takedown from Coenen, the fighters traded punches and Coenen took Blencowe down. She went belly-down with an armbar and wrenched back on Blencowe’s arm for the tapout win at the 3:23 mark of round two.
Tonight’s victory solidified Coenen’s spot as the number two female featherweight in the world behind Invicta FC champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino. With a much-discussed bout between Justino and UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey unlikely to happen any time soon, Justino may instead look to set up a trilogy fight against Coenen if contracts permit.
Earlier on tonight’s card, Macfarlane (2-0-0) took a hard-fought Split Decision win over Maria Rios (2-3-0) with scores of 29-28 twice and 28-29 in a flyweight bout, and Jenkins (19-6-0) finished Lissette Neri (6-3-0) with first-round punches in a featherweight contest.
(Photo Credit: Bellator)
Cyborg is under Zuffa contract. She will never fight in Bellator. Unless Coenen can get back into Invicta, forget it. And no one would care about Cyborg vs. Coenen. We have seen that two times already that already and know the outcome. Coenen is a shot fighter who can survive because 145 is so awful. There hasn’t even been one decent 145 fight in Bellator. They have all sucked and have been ripped to shreds by fans.
BTW, no clue Bellator even had these fights. Note to Scott Coker, if you are going to have female fighters, promote them!