Challenger Denise
Kielholtz may have competed for pride and for glory, but
Bellator MMA flyweight queen Juliana
Velasquez fought for family; as we have been reminded lately,
nothing is stronger than family.
Bellator took three weeks off to recharge its batteries and
replenish its stock, before returning inside its favored venue of
the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. With
Bellator 262 came 10 fights from its lightest division of
women’s flyweight all the way up to the largest at heavyweight. The
headlining attraction saw a 125-pound championship tilt as
Velasquez (12-0, 7-0 BMMA) topped impressive challenger Kielholtz
(6-3, 6-2 BMMA) in a five-round striking match. When the dust
settled, the Dutchwoman gave Velasquez everything she could handle;
the champion still emerged victorious by split decision, with two
48-47 calls going in her direction and one 48-47 score for her
opponent.
Bolstered by her walkout of “In the End” by Linkin Park, and
sending her love to her deceased brother, Velasquez came out
confident but struggled in the early going despite her natural
advantages. The size difference between the two flyweights was
clear from the outset, with several inches in height and reach in
favor of the champion. The kickboxing convert did not pay this much
mind, closing the distance and landing the harder shots in the
first round. Kielholtz picked up where she left off in Round 2,
stringing punch combinations together while Velasquez was largely
one-and-done with single strikes. The champion found her range in
the second round, piercing the Dutchwoman’s guard with several
sharp jabs but coming up short when trying to take the fight
down.
The third stanza saw the undefeated fighter work her stinging jab
to great effect, breaking up strike salvos from Kielholtz.
Velasquez alternated those snapping jabs with effective leg kicks
to slow the movement from Kielholtz, who loaded up on her strikes
more and more while her face began to swell from repeated jabs.
With 15 seconds to spare, Velasquez aimed to secure the round with
her first takedown of the evening. With the scores close leading
into Round 4, Velasquez began to cruise as she used her longer
wingspan to damage the challenger’s eye with jab after jab.
Kielholtz began to throw caution to the wind and chasing Velasquez
down, but the champ’s head movement kept her largely out of danger
as she started winning more exchanges.
With the fight possibly tied up in the final frame, Kielholtz
started off the round by rocking the champion with a huge right
hand. Velasquez gathered her bearings and fought back, but “Miss
Dynamite” repeatedly unloaded dynamite right hands on to the chin
of the Brazilian. The two women went toe-to-toe for the remainder
of the round, landing blows right up to the final bell to conclude
a hard-fought 25-minute battle. Judges were understandably split in
this close contest; the scores came in with Marcel Varela seeing
the fight 48-47 for Velasquez, Bryan Miner’s scorecard reading
48-47 for Kielholtz, and the final judge Jacob Montalvo sealing the
win with a 48-47 scorecard by split decision to the champion,
Velasquez. The “and still” flyweight queen, even knowing she
survived by a razor-close margin, already set her sights on
upcoming challenges of Liz
Carmouche and ex-champ Ilima-Lei
Macfarlane.
The co-main event came between heavyweights, as Tyrell
Fortune (11-1, 1 NC; 11-1, 1 NC BMMA) ran through Matt
Mitrione (13-9, 1 NC; 4-4, 1 NC BMMA) and earned a tapout due
to punches in less than two minutes. A quick tackle of a takedown
for Fortune allowed him to take side control, but not before
clashing heads on the way in when Mitrione ducked his head down.
As Mitrione scrambled wildly, Fortune kept slamming
his fists into the side of Mitrione’s head until Mitrione
surrendered due to strikes just 105 seconds into the first
round. When “Meathead” saw the head clash on the replay, he
furiously screamed at referee Dan Miragliotta for missing it, but
his cries fell on deaf ears. On the other hand, Fortune had only
one name in mind for his post-fight callout, shouting for former
opponent Timothy
Johnson to face him – Johnson is the only man to ever defeat
the wrestler out of Arizona Combat Sports.
A fired-up Matheus
Mattos (13-2-1, 1-1 BMMA) made the most of his second
impression by dispatching C.J.
Hamilton in the second round of their bantamweight tilt. In the
early going, Mattos set a frenzied pace and blasted Hamilton with a
left hand, and then latched on to a guillotine choke to threaten
the American. Mattos proceeded to do damage with his hands, rarely
letting Hamilton take a moment to breathe as he pushed the pace
from the starting bell. In the second round, a right hand to
Hamilton’s body and a subsequent uppercut forced Hamilton to stand
straight up, but a left hand over the top short-circuited the man
known as “The Autobot.” When Hamilton dropped to the ground and turtled up
on his knees, the Brazilian continued hammering him with punches
until referee Kerry Hatley had seen enough at 1:33 of Round 2.
With his win, Mattos announced himself as a possible entrant for
the rumored Bellator bantamweight grand prix.
Two-time Bellator title challenger Arlene
Blencowe (14-8, 7-4 BMMA) rebounded from her first stoppage
loss in over five years – a second-round submission to Cristiane
Justino in 2020 – by pounding out Dayana
Silva (9-7, 0-1 BMMA) early in the third round. The first two
rounds played out largely the same between the featherweights, with
Blencowe picking up steam after a close first round from the harder
shots and effective leg kicks. After forcing Silva to take a bad
step by checking a kick in the third round, a booming left hook and
a fierce overhand right from Blencowe put the Brazilian on rubber
legs. A swarming combination from the Aussie sent Silva
crashing to the mat, and a barrage of angry hammerfists from
“Angerfist” sealed the deal and forced referee Dan Miragliotta to
step in. The stoppage came at exactly one minute into the third
round, with Blencowe becoming the first fighter to put Silva away
since Silva’s MMA debut in 2009.
The main card kicked off with a fairly one-sided middleweight clash
that allowed Johnny
Eblen (9-0, 5-0 BMMA) to advance his spotless record to nine up
and none down thanks to a unanimous verdict over Travis
Davis (10-5, 0-1 BMMA). Eblen came out guns blazing in the
opening round, mixing in powerful punches with relentless takedowns
to keep Davis guessing and lump him up for much of the round.
Davis’ offense was largely limited to kicks from afar before
“Diamond Hands” closed the distance and put Davis on his back
repeatedly. The second stanza slowed as Eblen’s wrestling-heavy
game wore on Davis, and Davis survived a serious assault in part
thanks to several blatant fence grabs. Although Davis jawed at the
wrestler for much of the last round, he did little else as Eblen
imposed his will and even hit a suplex much to the chagrin of the
Bellator newcomer. After the final bell, the judges handed in
tallies of 30-27 and a pair of 30-26 scores to award the Floridian
the victory; Eblen called out an international foe in the form of
Charlie
Ward when the promotion heads overseas.
The prelims concluded with a heavyweight rumble, where Said Sowma
(7-2, 1-1 BMMA) knocked Ronny
Markes (19-9, 0-2 BMMA) out cold just 69 seconds into the first frame.
The two big men totaling 497 pounds embraced instead of touching
gloves to begin the match, and both traded leg kicks in the early
going. As Markes circled away on the outside, Sowma gripped his
foe’s outstretched arm and unleashed a devastating left hand that
put Markes down hard. The Suriname native only needed a trio of
jackhammering follow-up punches to completely shut Markes’ lights
out, capping off a preliminary card that contained a few solid
knockouts.
Earlier on in the card, overwhelming favorite Cody Law (4-0,
4-0 BMMA) clobbered Theodore
Macuka (1-1, 0-1 BMMA) in their 145-pound encounter with knees
and punches at 1:54 of the opening frame; Diana
Avsaragova (4-0, 2-0 BMMA) snagged a plodding split decision
over Gabriella
Gulfin (2-3, 0-1 BMMA) in the flyweight division; at
featherweight, Adil
Benjilany (6-3, 1 NC; 3-2 BMMA) outworked Johnny Soto
(4-2, 1-1 BMMA) en route to a unanimous verdict; the night began
with a lightweight tilt as Charlie
Campbell (4-1, 2-0 BMMA)
battered an exhausted Nick
Giulietti (2-2, 0-1 BMMA) with leg kicks and punches to the
body at 1:30 of the second round.