HONOLULU – Bellator fans didn’t get to see the scheduled main event on Friday, but they were able to witness a frenetic scrap between Alejandra Lara and Veta Arteaga.
The two women used all 15 minutes in order to determine a winner. When the judges scorecards were read, Lara (9-3 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) swept Arteaga (5-4 MMA, 4-4 BMMA) across the board.
It had been six months since Lara stepped foot in the cage. The name of the game in between fights was improvement. Post-fight, Lara voiced her pleasure with her performance and putting her improvements on full display.
“It’s what I’ve been working for,” Lara told MMA Junkie. “I was expecting a war, and it was that. … I have the surprise factor. In my last fight no one saw my development with my striking and my base. It’s been a half a year since my last fight, so it was a lot of time working on my stance. I think everyone could see that tonight.”
While Lara impressed inside the cage, her weight miss by less than a pound at Friday’s weigh-ins garnered negative attention. However, the Colombian fighter believes she can make the proper adjustments to avoid a repeat issue.
“Maybe I had to adjust better my diet,” Lara said. “We’re doing a good weight cut, but my scale was not calibrated. We had short time to adjust, and we’re very sorry. It’s the first time it’s happened, but it’s not going to happen again.”
Check out Alejandra Lara’s full post-fight interview in the video above.
Bellator 235 (“Bellator and USO Present: Salute the Troops 2019″) took place Friday at Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. The main card aired on Paramount and streamed on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.
