Quietly, Bellator MMA’s second flyweight champion is finally ready to defend her new title.
In the main event of Bellator 262 on Friday in Uncasville, Conn., Juliana Velasquez will defend the 125-pound strap against the surging Denise Kielholtz. The title fight arrives to considerably less fanfare than those of Velasquez’s predecessor, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, one of the promotion’s most recognizable faces and the signature star around which it built several cards in Hawaii.
Perhaps the pomp and circumstance will follow if Velasquez can turn in a few more performances as dominant as the one she used to relieve “The Ilimanator” of the belt last December.