Check out the rundown of Saturday’s Bellator 238 main card, including Julia Budd defending her featherweight crown against the ever-dangerous Cris Cyborg.
Bellator 238 is on deck this Saturday from the Forum in Inglewood, California. Bellator’s women’s featherweight belt will be on the line in the main event, with the co-main seeing a featherweight World Grand Prix quarterfinals match-up. The main card will begin at 10:00 PM ET and air live on DAZN.
The featured matchup of Bellator 238 involves Julia Budd defending her featherweight crown against Bellator newcomer, Cris Cyborg. Budd has owned her division within the promotion, and hasn’t lost since her 2011 matchup with Ronda Rousey. And while she hasn’t tasted defeat in awhile, she hasn’t really been fighting the elites either. Sure, she has a win over MMA pioneer Marloes Coenen, before her retirement, and took a win over Germaine de Randamie back in 2011. But, this is a huge fight for Budd and a big ol’ test to see just how good she really is.
Cris Cyborg was/is the most feared female fighter in all of combat sports. She had over 20 fights – spread across the Strikeforce, Incivta, and the UFC – before finally getting dethroned by the great Amanda Nunes. Cyborg went 6-1 during her tumultuous relationship with the Zuffa promotion, but still appears to be at the top of her game. Can the same Cyborg that we have come to know reunite with Scott Coker to acquire her fourth world title in a major MMA promotion?
The co-main event slot of Bellator 238 is owned by a quarter-finals match-up in the featherweight World Grand Prix. It will be former bantamweight champ, Darrion Caldwell, locking horns with the electric and undefeated, Adam Borics. Caldwell dropped his belt, and consecutive bouts, to the sensational Kyoji Horiguchi, but rebounded with a tournament win over the ever-lethal Henry Corrales. Borics has been a bit of a dark horse in this GP. He knocked out Aaron Pico and then stopped former champ, Pat Curran, both in the second round. Can Borics keep his momentum going? Or will Caldwell lean on his stifling wrestling chops to advance to the next round?
Another top free agent acquisition for the Bellator promotion is Sergio Pettis, who will have his first fight against a heavy handed Alfred Khashakyan. Pettis is really known best as a top tier flyweight, but this bout will be at 135-pounds. Is that going to make a difference? Also on the Bellator 238 card, ousted featherweight GP competitors, Juan Archuleta and Henry Corrales will be facing one another. Archuleta has a pretty record, but a lot of that appears to be fluff as he has yet to really prove himself against the 145-pound elites. As for Corrales, he posted up five straight Bellator wins before Darrion Caldwell eliminated him from the tournament. Corrales is battle tested while there is a lot unknown about Archuleta. This fight should answer a lot of those questions.
Early on the main card, electric kickboxer, Raymond Daniels, returns to the small gloves to take on a scrappy Jason King. Expect all the flash in this one. Before that opening up the main card, professional boxer turned MMA fighter, Ava Knight, gears up for her second cage fight against the 3-3 Emilee Gettys.
For an in-depth breakdown of each Bellator 238 bout, check out The MMA Vivisection with Bloody Elbow’s own Zane Simon, Victor Rodriguez, and Eddie Mercado. Be sure to subscribe to our secondary YouTube channel to stay up to date with all of our live video content. Stay glued to Bloody Elbow for all of your event coverage including play-by-play, results, highlights, and more!
Main card: DAZN at 10:00 PM ET
Julia Budd vs. Cris Cyborg: (W) Featherweight title
Darrion Caldwell vs. Adam Borics: Featherweight GP
Sergio Pettis vs. Alfred Khashakyan: Bantamweight
Juan Archuleta vs. Henry Corrales: Featherweight
Raymond Daniels vs. Jason King: Welterweight
Ava Knight vs. Emilee King: Strawweight
Prelims: at 7:30 PM ET
Jay Jay Wilson vs. Mario Navarro: Featherweight
Ricardo Seixas Filho vs. Dominic Clark: Lightweight
Aaron Pico vs. Daniel Carey: Featherweight
AJ Agazarm vs. Adel Altamimi: Featherweight
Curtis Millender vs. Moses Murrietta: 175 pounds
Brandon Bender vs. Joshua Jones: Featherweight
Anthony Taylor vs. Chris Avila: Lightweight
Miguel Jacob vs. David Pacheco: Welterweight
Tony Bartovich vs. Jarett Conner: Featherweight