The lineup for July’s Bellator 224 event has six new matchups, including a bout between two women’s featherweights that are currently featured in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.
Bellator officials recently announced the new contests, which include Amanda Bell, who currently sits as an honorable mention in the MMA women’s featherweight rankings, vs. Arlene Blencowe, who checks in at No. 10.
Bellator 224 takes place July 12 at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Okla. The night’s main card airs on Paramount and streams on DAZN following prelims that stream on MMA Junkie. The main event sees Bellator women’s featherweight champion Julia Budd put her title on the line against undefeated contender Olga Rubin.
Bell (6-5 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) fought most recently in February, picking up a TKO win over Amber Leibrock. “The Lady Killer” currently stands at 3-1 in her past four contests, with the lone loss in that run coming to recent title challenger Talita Nogueira. She now meets Blencowe (11-7 MMA, 4-3 BMMA), who also scored a TKO win over Leibrock in her latest outing, a September 2018 appearance. “Angerfist” is 4-1 in her past five fights.
The remaining additions include featherweights Lucas Brennan (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) vs. Thomas Lopez (1-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) and Gabriel Varga (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) vs. Jamese Taylor (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), a catchweight fight of Will Fleury (5-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) vs. Antonio Jones (7-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), light heavyweights Christian Edwards (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) vs. Justin Vargas (3-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) and lightweights Nainoa Dung (2-0 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) vs. Brad Robison (3-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA).
With the additions to the card, Bellator 224 now includes:
MAIN CARD (Paramount, DAZN, 9 p.m. ET)
- Champ Julia Budd vs. Olga Rubin – for women’s featherweight title
- Rafael Carvalho vs. Chidi Njokuani
- Juliana Velasquez vs. Kristina Williams
- Kiichi Kunimoto vs. Ed Ruth
PRELIMINARY CARD (MMAjunkie, 6:30 p.m. ET)
- Lucas Brennan vs. Thomas Lopez
- Jamese Taylor vs. Gabriel Varga
- Amanda Bell vs. Arlene Blencowe
- Will Fleury vs. Antonio Jones
- Christian Edwards vs. Justin Vargas
- Nainoa Dung vs. Brad Robison
- Sinead Kavanagh vs. Leslie Smith
- Bruna Ellen vs. Elina Kallionidou
- Kiefer Crosbie vs. Jonathan Gary
- A.J. Agazarm vs. Jacob Landin
For more on Bellator 224, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.
