Bellator MMA president Scott Coker is not too concerned about Valerie Loureda.
Loureda suffered her first professional defeat after getting outpointed by Hannah Guy at Bellator 259 on Friday night. Despite dropping Guy in the first round, Loureda was largely outgrappled and also appeared to have gassed out as well.
To her credit, she did show heart and toughness not to get finished as she continued to fight throughout. However, she still ultimately lost in a fight she was expected to win comfortably as her record now stands at 3-1.
Coker, however, believes this is a learning lesson for the 23-year-old and notably expects to get a better feel for where she stands much later into her fighting future.
“The one thing you have to remember about Valerie is she’s still a young fighter,” Coker said post-fight (via MMA Junkie). “She only has, what, four fights. Talk to me after she has 10, 11, 12 fights, and we’ll have a better picture of (her stock). I was sitting there talking to Dan (Lambert), because she works out at ATT in Florida, and we said, ‘Hey, she’s young, she’ll rebound, she’ll work on her ground game.’
“She’ll eventually put it all together. She’s got time, and I know that, especially what Dan was telling me, he says, ‘This girl is in the gym, and she’s throwing bombs at people like she wants to fight. She wants to fight everybody all the time.’ So, she’s got that spirit. It’s just, you know, put a little bit more pieces together, work on transitional elements of MMA, and she’ll get it together.”
Loureda doesn’t seem to be taking the loss too bad either as she had a message for her fans and haters.
(@valerieloureda)on to the next
pic.twitter.com/OlDxVCs0gc
— Valerie Loureda (@valerielouredaa) May 23, 2021
What do you think of Loureda’s future in MMA?