Juliana Velasquez is the new Bellator flyweight champion after a strategic five-round battle against Ilima-Lei Macfarlane in the main event of Bellator 254 on Thursday.

Velasquez acquired scores of 48-47 twice and 49-46 for to a great extent closing down Macfarlane’s takedown game and countering the champ’s accuses of heavier, more precise punches. The 34-year-old Brazilian is the second 125-pound champion in the ViacomCBS-possessed advancement’s set of experiences.

“This is like a gold medal I didn’t win in judo,” Velasquez said.

Velasquez size advantage was perceptible from the start of the activity at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. Yet, most of harm done to Macfarlane came from a flying knee that associated toward the finish of the third round, and a conflict off a takedown left a razor-meager cut over the camp’s forehead. The wounds drained liberally, giving Macfarlane another rival as she battled to hit and hold down her adversary.

Macfarlane’s offense was to a great extent restricted to short explosions of striking offense that the southpaw Velasquez took out with straight lefts, uppercuts and check right snares. At the point when she had the option to get Velasquez on the tangle in the fourth, she couldn’t do a lot other than fire short punches. Velasquez was just too large and too solid to even consider manipulating, and a fifth-round takedown reverse discharges when she ended up on base.

“You could state I coulda, woulda, shoulda, however toward the day’s end, she beat me,” Macfarlane, who endured the main loss of her expert profession, said thereafter. “Her strategy was right on the money. She’s the boss. She merits it.”

Velasquez stays undefeated after 10 battles.

Magomedov covers Mattos

Magomed Magomedov put the Dagestani binds on and rode Matheus Mattos for three rounds, procuring a simple scope of scorecards.

The last count was 30-26 and 30-27 twice for Magomedov, who got his sixteenth genius win with a takedown and catching facility on Mattos. A short wrap of the neck was the Brazilian’s just beam of light, and it came in the initial seconds of the session. From that point onward, he was totally on Magomedov’s time, fending off takedowns and gag endeavors as single-legs generated back-takes with strikes in the middle.

Magomedov, the main man to beat current UFC bantamweight champ Petr Yan (who later retaliated for the misfortune), declined to get down on future adversaries and just said there’s another “lord” in the Bellator wilderness.

Vassell’s size a lot for Markes

At middleweight, Ronny Markes’ impressive hooking capacity would have given Linton Vassell fits. In any case, at light heavyweight, Vassell’s size counterbalanced any preferred position.

Markes, who’s built up later in his profession, attempted to get the battle down yet on two events wound up on the base against the one-time title challenger. The second, Vassell capitalized on things and progressed to mount, where he released a whirlwind of strikes that left Markes no place to go. At the 3:37 sign of the subsequent casing, the arbitrator had seen enough and waved off the session for Vassell, who’s currently won two straight after a grievous three-battle slip.

Cotton chokes “Fortress” Sumter

A stage knee was Romero Cotton’s encouragement to bring down Justin “The Fort” Sumter after a couple of seconds of getting a handle on things on the feet. From that point, he mauled Sumter until a break endeavor permitted him to take the back and sink in the back stripped stifle at 3:36 of cycle one.