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Juliana Velasquez remains the Bellator flyweight champion, although she overcame her first title defense against Denise Kielholtz at Bellator 262 by the skin of her teeth.
Velasquez (12-0) won a split decision over Kielholtz (6-3) in a very intense affair on Friday night at the Bellator 262 main event, which took place at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut . After vowing all week to defeat Kielholtz – a world-class kickboxer and the current female flyweight champion of Bellator Kickboxing – on his feet, Velasquez stuck to his word and used a long jab and smooth knees to bloody Kielholtz’s left eye and do just enough damage to leave the cage with his title intact.
Judges Marcel Varela and Jacob Montalvo scored the fight 48-47 for Velasquez, while judge Bryan Miner scored the fight 48-47 for Kielholtz. Round 1 (10-9 Kielholtz) and round 3 (10-9 Velasquez) were the only rounds on which the judges unanimously agreed.
“I think I had a lot of success with my jab,” said a relieved Velasquez after the fight. “I was struggling with my straight line so things didn’t go exactly the way I wanted, but I’m pretty happy with my performance and the result.
The fight ultimately boiled down to a matter of damage versus volume, as Kielholtz edged the champion in total strikes by a wide margin, 101-46, and succumbed only to a pullout in the last seconds of lap 3.
A veteran forward with 47 professional kickboxing victories, Kielholtz found early success by throwing himself in the pocket and swarming the larger Velasquez with a range of lightning combinations. She bloodied Velasquez’s nose at the end of the first round, but the champion started to find her range in the second round and constantly interrupted Kielholtz’s pace for the remainder of the fight with her sharp blow and her knees standing in the middle.
Kielholtz kept advancing with combinations and was the aggressor for most of the fight, but Velasquez knocked out the rallies enough to sway two of the judges. With the win, Velasquez pushed his Bellator record to a perfect 7-0.
“I actually thought I was working my withdrawals, but I couldn’t find the time to do it,” Velasquez said. “Most of my fights I put pressure on, but I’ve shown here that I can also fight on the outside and withstand pressure, and I think that’s what makes a champion too.”
In the main co-event of the night, heavyweight prospect Tyrell Fortune (11-1, NC) scored the biggest victory of his career with a controversial one-round bombing from UFC veteran Matt Mitrione ( 13-9, 1 NC).
NCAA Division II national champion wrestler, Fortune blew up Mitrione with a double-legged kidnapping in the opening seconds of the fight, in which there was an accidental head-to-head clash. As Mitrione complained vehemently to the referee, Fortune rained down a barrage of punches that ultimately led to Mitrione’s withdrawal at 1:45 am of the first round.
An enraged Mitrione then walked out of the cage in disgust, but reruns showed the head butt was the result of Mitrione lowering her own head into Fortune’s.
Afterward, Fortune called on the only man to defeat him in his MMA career: recent Bellator interim title challenger Tim Johnson, who stole Fortune’s undefeated record in February 2020 with a brutal first-round knockout.
“Tim Johnson, come here, boy! Fortune cried out.
With the loss, Mitrione’s late career crisis continued. The 42-year-old heavyweight is now winless in his last five fights and finished with strikes in the last three of them.
Elsewhere on the map, Matheus Mattos (13-2-1) used a hellish combination in the second round to secure the first Bellator victory of his career – and cement himself like a dark horse in the promotion’s bantamweight division. After briefly knocking down Cee Jay Hamilton (15-9) with a left hook in the first round, the 29-year-old Brazilian crumpled Hamilton to the ground in the opening minutes of second frame with a hard right hand to the body followed by a right uppercut and one left hand on top.
Sensing the end, Mattos jumped up with follow-up punches to secure his first win in the Bellator cage just 93 seconds into the second round.
Of Mattos’ two MMA losses, one came first to competitor Bellator Magomed Magomedov and the other came in 2017 against future UFC champion Petr Yan. Other than that, Mattos has been a destructive force in his career, ending 11 of his 13 wins by stoppage, including Friday night.
In the evening’s other women’s fight, Bellator featherweight contender Arlene Blencowe (14-8) bounced back in style after her title failure last October against Cris Cyborg, knocking out Dayana Silva (9-7) with a third strong point. round burst.
After an 11-minute opening back-and-forth, the 38-year-old Australian cracked Silva with a nasty failed left hook and then swarmed with punches, ultimately sending her opponent home with a two-streak. consecutive defeats thanks to a flurry of fighting. ending the hammer blows. The official time-out came at 1:00 am of the third round, pushing Blencowe’s record at the Bellator to 7-4 with four wins from those wins in his last five appearances.
In the opening main card bout, Johnny Eblen (9-0) routed veteran middleweight Travis Davis (10-5) with an intimidating performance to move up to 5-0 in the Bellator cage and get closer to the title race.
Elben edged Davis by a 97-18 margin and dominated him in the battle on the 11-0 withdrawal, the latter quickly becoming fighting history.
Full results from the Bellator 262 are available below.
Main card
Preliminary map
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