It was the same old cyborg. It was a brand new cyborg.
Another dominant performance in a career full of them, Cris Cyborg added a new twist by scooping her first submission win in 26 professional fights and choking Arlene Blencowe for her Bellator women’s featherweight championship Bellator 249 main event to be successfully defended Thursday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Cyborg unilaterally beat their challenger in a round and a half, Blencowe bled in the stand-up fight before putting her on the canvas and locking a behind bare choke to get the tapout at 2:36 on round 2.
“This is a dream come true,” said Cyborg (23-2, 1 NC). “I’m really happy and excited for the next one.”
Knocked out in 18 of her last 22 wins, Cyborg first defended the £ 145 championship she won against Julia Budd on her Bellator debut in January. With that, all important featherweight titles in women’s MMA were successfully completed, as Cyborg had previously ruled the UFC, Invicta FC and the now defunct Strikeforce.
Cyborg is a 35-year-old Brazilian native who lives and trains in Southern California. She’s suffered only one loss in 15 years, a TKO loss in 2018 to two-part UFC champion Amanda Nunes, who is number 1 pound-for-pound in ESPN women. Cyborg takes third place.
Blencowe (13-8), a 37-year-old Australian, is a former two-time world champion in professional boxing. But her boxing was never a factor in this fight. Cyborg injured her in the first round with kicks and quick punch combinations, and when the champion brought the fight to the canvas in just two minutes, she captured a dominant position and then almost finished it.
Blencowe survived to the bell, but it was damaged goods that came out for the second round. Cyborg swarmed them out, put them back on the mat, and finished them off.
It was Blencowe’s second unsuccessful bid for the Bellator women’s featherweight title. She lost a split decision to Budd in 2017.
Earlier that night, the fight card lost its co-main event when Patricky Freire and Jaleel Willis were pulled out of his 159-pound catchweight fight because he fell ill. Mike Mazzulli, director of sports regulation for the Mohegan Tribe, said Freire was struck off the map “because of an illness unrelated to COVID or weight loss.”
The fighter’s brother, the Bellator Men’s Featherweight Champion, Patricio Freire, later wrote on Instagram that he and Patricky’s trainer had dropped out and said, “I caught him a little dizzy in his room when we went into that Arena wanted. “”
He said his brother was seen by two commission doctors, had medical treatment and was feeling fine, “but devastated by the cancellation.”
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