On Thursday night, Bellator 254 will unfold at the Mohegan Sun Arena, in Uncasville, Connecticut, with CBS Sports delivering the broadcast live. The main event will pit Ilima-Lei Macfarlane against Juliana Velasquez in a bout for the Bellator Women’s Flyweight Championship. The co-headliner features Ronny Markes and Linton Vassell in a heavyweight fight.
Let’s take a look at the full fight card as well as Bellator betting suggestions for some of the key matchups.
Bellator 254 Betting Preview
Main Card (CBS Sports)
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane vs Juliana Velasquez (Bellator Women’s Flyweight Championship)
Linton Vassell vs Ronny Markes (Heavyweight)
Magomed Magomedov vs Matheus Mattos (Bantamweight)
Davion Franklin vs Anthony Garrett (Heavyweight)
Preliminary Card (Streamed on Bellator MMA/YouTube and CBSSports.com)
Romero Cotton vs Justin Sumter (Middleweight)
Maurice Jackson vs Grant Neal (Light Heavyweight)
Kemran Lachinov vs Shamil Nikaev (Welterweight)
Kenny Champion vs Cody Law (Featherweight)
Robson Gracie Jr vs Billy Goff (Welterweight)
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane vs Juliana Velasquez marks Macfarlane’s fifth defense of her belt, and her record suggests that she will be hard to stop. She has an 11-0 record as a pro fighter, including eight stoppages, and has never lost an MMA fight at any level. Macfarlane won the title at Bellator 186, back in 2017, in a sequel fight with Emily Ducote, and has held onto it since then. Velasquez has a 5-0 record in Bellator since joining in 2017, and she has a two-inch height advantage and a one-inch reach advantage over the champion.
Velasquez likes to keep the fight upright, as she showed in her win over Alejandra Lara. She took Lara down but then let her get back up before continuing. The strategy paid off, but just barely, as Velasquea prevailed via a split decision on the cards. Velasquez brings considerable power for her size, with the sort of bombs that can stop a fight. She used that power to stop Elaine Albuquerque in the first round in her defense of a bantamweight title for a Brazilian promotion. This happened again when Velasquez fought Kristina Williams in her third Bellator tilt. She landed so many punches, one after the other, that you could watch Williams fade with each blow. If Velasquez can keep the fight upright, she could win.
Macfarlane has a much better grappling game than Velasquez. She got Valerie Letourneau to tap out in the third round of a title defense at Bellator 213; Macfarlane had worked Letourneau into a figure-four headlock and then started delivering elbow strikes. Against Veta Arteaga, MacFarlane was in her opponent’s guard but delivered an elbow that made such a gash in Arteaga’s forehead that the blood came out in such volume that the fight was stopped. So if things get to the floor, Macfarlane should win — and I see her getting things to the floor.
Final Prediction:
Macfarlane wins via stoppage
Romero Cotton vs Justin Sumter is a bout that was scheduled for March, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation and ultimate postponement. Cotton is a latecomer into the sport, having made his pro debut at 27, and he has fought three more times since then. He has a wrestling ground, having won three championships at the NCAA Division II level. He made his debut at Bellator 181 and won via split decision against Aaron Rodriguez. He needed help from his corner to get out of the grappling.
Sumter has delivered several finishes via submission during his career, which means that Cotton needs to keep things upright. Cotton’s last two fights have been a bit chaotic; two minutes into his fight with Jason Perrotta, Perrotta’s knee buckled, and he had to withdraw. In his last fight, he used knees to the head of Willie Whitehead, while in the clinch, to deliver a knockout near the end of the first round. What made things even more interesting was that Whitehead had shown up 15 pounds over the limit, but Cotton had agreed to cintune nonetheless. That’s the sort of flexibility that makes for a resilient fighter.
Final Prediction:
Cotton wins via decision.
