Bellator MMA continues to acquire fighters to their roster, and the latest acquisition is the signing of former UFC title challenger Valerie Letourneau.
Letourneau (8-6) has officially inked a multi-fight deal that will land her in the Bellator women’s flyweight division. The promotion confirmed the news to MMA Junkie. Letourneau departed ways with the UFC earlier this year after she suffered her third consecutive loss in a split decision to Viviane Pereira at UFC 206 in December. The departure was mutual between the two sides. She had her issues with making weight for the strawweight division. The UFC has made it clear that it has no intention to add a 125-pound division in the near future.
Letourneau began her UFC career at bantamweight with a split-decision win over Elizabeth Phillips at UFC 174 in June 2014. She then cut down to strawweight and at first, her decision to do so paid off in a big way. She received a title shot at UFC 193 in November 2015 against undefeated strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. However, the fight did not go the way she wanted. Letourneau hung tough for five rounds en route to a unanimous decision loss. The UFC allowed her to have a one-off fight at strawweight as she fought Joanne Calderwood at UFC Fight Night 89 this past June, but she suffered a third-round TKO defeat. She then had to move back down to strawweight for the bout with Pereira. But she failed to make weight, prompting her to decide that cutting such a significant amount of weight was no longer an option.
Bellator could insert her into the promotion’s inaugural flyweight title fight, which is expected to take place later this year.
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