Bellator announced some big things for April yesterday and one of the fights that was announced was a title fight in the women’s featherweight division. All-Time great and current champion Cris Cyborg (25-2) will be defending her title against Arlene Blencowe (15-8) for the second time.
The matchup will take place at Bellator 279 which goes down on April 23rd. As mentioned, this is the second time that Cyborg and Blencowe will fight for the Bellator featherweight title.
The first time these two fought was back at Bellator 249 in October of 2020. That night, Cris Cyborg was simply too much for Blencowe. Cyborg ran through her and stopped her in the second round with a submission.
However, since that loss, Blencowe has rebounded nicely. She has won back-to-back fights to put herself in a position to once again challenge Cyborg for the title at Bellator 279.
Cyborg’s Bellator Run
Now, this was not the original fight that the promotion wanted to book. The promotion had hopes of signing superstar Kayla Harrison and having her fight Cyborg at this event in April. Of course we learned yesterday that Harrison resigned with the PFL.
When it became apparent that Bellator wouldn’t be signing Harrison, they moved towards this rematch for the champion. Since joining Bellator, Cris Cyborg has been nothing short of completely dominant.
She’s had four fights with Bellator and she’s won all four while finishing all four opponents. The problem for Cyborg is that she’s running out of fights. Cat Zingano is really the only appealing opponent who she hasn’t already fought.
With the Zingano and Harrison fights not happening, things shifted here which is the next best thing. Now, Cyborg’s contract is coming up and should expire this year. This is definitely going to be something to watch and Bellator will do everything in their power to keep their champion.