Unfortunate news hit Tuesday morning as Julia Budd (8-2, 2-0 in Bellator) has suffered an unknown injury that has forced her from the inaugural women’s Featherweight championship bout with Marloes Coenen (23-6, 2-0 in Bellato) at Bellator 155.
She will now be replaced by former UFC fighter Alexis Dufresne (5-2) who will also be making her debut for Bellator. Dufresne fought as a Bantamweight while competing in the UFC but competed as a Featherweight and 150 lbs Catchweight bouts prior to competing in the Octagon.
Coenen, who is a former Strikeforce champion and Invicta FC title challenger, enters the bout on a 4-1 run, which includes recent submission victories over Annalisa Bucci and Arlene Blencowe in her first two Bellator bouts. A fight prior, the 35-year-old Dutch fighter and 16-year pro suffered an Invicta FC title loss Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino.
Bellator 155 takes place May 20 at CenturyLink Arena in Boise. The main card airs on Spike following prelims on SpikeTV.com
The rest of the card features:
MAIN CARD (Spike, 9 p.m. ET)
- Champ Rafael Carvalho vs. Melvin Manhoef – for Middleweight title
- Pat Curran vs. Georgi Karakhanyan
- Dan Charles vs. Augusto Sakai
- Marcin Held vs. Dave Jansen
- Joey Beltran vs. Chase Gormley
PRELIMINARY CARD (SpikeTV.com, 6:30 p.m. ET)
- Alexis Defresne vs. Marloes Coenen – for W. Featherweight title
- Tyler Freeland vs. Joe Hamilton
- Veta Arteaga vs. Jackie Vandenburgh
- Hamilton Ash vs. Vince Morales
- Casey Johnson vs. Brendon Raftery
- Scott Thometz vs. Josh Tyler
- Will Noland vs. Sean Powers
- Erick Cronkhite vs. Ricky Steele
- Olly Bradstreet vs. Jesse Brock