The second half of Bellator’s Hawaii doubleheader sees Bellator 236 take place at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu as Hawaii’s own Ilima-Lei Macfarlane bids to complete her fourth successful defense of the Bellator women’s flyweight title.
The card also features the first quarterfinal bout in the Bellator featherweight grand prix, as A.J. McKee takes on Derek Campos, while a host of rising prospects look to make their mark with performances to match their spectacular setting.
Here are our four burning questions ahead of Saturday night’s fights.
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Will Ilima-Lei Macfarlane keep her gold?
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane has been the poster girl for Bellator ever since she captured the women’s flyweight title at Bellator 186 back in November 2017, and since then she has cemented her status as the organization’s top 125-pounder with a hat-trick of third-round finishes.
Now she takes on seasoned veteran and British female MMA pioneer Kate Jackson, who is bidding to make history in her homeland by becoming the first British female to capture a major MMA title.
Jackson booked her place in Saturday’s main event with a first-round finish of Lena Ovchynnikova, and will look to spring a shock against Macfarlane, who has finished every challenger to cross her path as Bellator champion.
Will Jackson be the first challenger to push Macfarlane to the limit, or will the defending champion produce another impressive display and claim a fourth straight finish to send her fellow Hawaiians home happy?
Will Derek Campos or A.J. McKee punch ticket to grand prix semifinals?
Bellator’s featherweight grand prix tournament has been one of the promotion’s big success stories of 2019, and the competition’s quarterfinal stages kick off in Hawaii with the first matchup of the final eight, as undefeated A.J. McKee takes on seasoned veteran Derek Campos.
It’s a matchup of new school versus old school, as the teak-tough Campos will look to hand rising star McKee the first defeat of his career and in the process progress into the final four of the tournament.
McKee looked outstanding in his last outing as he demolished Georgi Karakhanyan in just eight seconds to surge into the quarterfinals with barely a scratch on him. Campos, meanwhile, battled all the way to the judges’ scorecards to earn a unanimous decision over two-time former featherweight champion Daniel Straus.
Will we see another virtuoso performance from McKee, or can Campos drag him into deep water and defeat him for the first time in his MMA career?
Which flyweight contender will move one step closer to the belt?
With the women’s flyweight title being contested in the night’s main event, fellow Brazilian flyweight contenders Juliana Velasquez and Bruna Ellen both have the opportunity to score a timely victory and press their claims to be the next woman up to challenge for the strap in 2020.
At just 23, Ellen (5-2, 3-2 BMMA) will concede an age and experience advantage to the more seasoned – and still undefeated – Velasquez (9-0, 4-0 BMMA), but she will see victory over the surging contender as the perfect argument for her getting a title shot next.
Of course, that’s easier said than done, and she will be up against the toughest test of her career against 33-year-old Velasquez, who has yet to taste defeat in her professional career.
Will Velasquez take her undefeated career into double figures, or will Ellen score the biggest win of her career to position herself for a shot at the gold?
Can Jason Jackson step in and step up the 170-pound ladder?
Just one week ago, Jason Jackson was probably thinking about what plans he had for this weekend. But after receiving the call to step in on seven days’ notice to replace the injured Neiman Gracie and take on Japanese contender Kiichi Kunimoto, those plans went by the wayside.
Now Jackson (10-4, 1-1 BMMA) finds himself with a main card spot against a seasoned opponent, and the opportunity to bounce back from his split-decision loss to Ed Ruth at Bellator 231 and move himself up Bellator’s welterweight rankings.
Standing in his way is Kunimoto (20-8-2, 0-1 BMMA), who is coming into the bout off a full training camp, albeit for a different style of opponent, but has a wealth of experience from his time fighting in the UFC and RIZIN.
But Jackson has the opportunity to step in and make a statement as he bids to end his year on a high and set himself up for a bout with one of the division’s big names in early 2020.
Can Jackson get the job done on short notice, or will Kunimoto register the first win of his Bellator career to establish his own credentials in a crowded welterweight division?
