Few fighters get the kind of experience Julia Budd has in just 10 professional fights.
Of course, Budd’s mixed-martial-arts debut in 2010 was not her first time fighting. The Bellator featherweight from Roberts Creek started with a successful career in Muy Thai – she has the distinction of being the only woman to beat Gina Carano in a Muy Thai fight. With a 10-2 record, she decided to transition to MMA.
Almost immediately, she was thrown to the wolves. After getting a dominant first win under the Strikeforce banner, she faced current UFC champion Amanda Nunes. The fight did not go her way, nor did the fight later that year against Ronda Rousey. To this day the only losses on her professional MMA record are to the UFC champ and the former champ, who are now scheduled to fight in one of the biggest events of all time.
For Budd, the losses weren’t about getting dealt an unlucky hand. They were about growth, learning from being placed in adverse conditions and fighting her way back from them.
“They made me who I am,” she said of the losses. “It doesn’t mean that it makes them any less hard to handle. I got over it and I had to learn my lesson early in my career. I feel like it’s why I’m on such a great winning streak now. I wouldn’t go back and change anything.”
She has carried that winning streak from Strikeforce to Invicta to Bellator, where she is now 2-0 and on the cusp of challenging for the women’s featherweight title.
Earlier this year, bad luck kept her from realizing that opportunity sooner. Set to fight Marloes Coenan for the Bellator Featherweight Championship in May, Budd was forced to withdraw from the bout with an injury. Coenan instead faced Alexis Dufresne in a non-title fight, and Dufresne defeated her in a shocking upset. The Bellator featherweight division was suddenly shaken up, and Budd was left wondering what was next.
“I was hoping Marloes was going to win,” she said. If Coenan had been victorious as planned, it would have likely set up a fight with Budd for the belt. But in the lead-up to the fight, Budd believed that Coenan was taking Dufresne too lightly. “I was like ‘Oh, god,’ holding my breath. I felt like she was underestimating Alexis and that was an amateur mistake from the get-go.”
As she prepares for her next fight, with the title in her sights, Budd refuses to make the same mistake. She will fight Arlene Blencowe at Bellator 162 on Oct. 21. Knowing that a victory will put her right back in line for the title, Budd knows to take her opponent seriously.
“I’m not underestimating anyone,” Budd said. “I’m making sure I do everything I need to do to solidify my opportunity to fight for the Bellator world title. She presses forward, she’s got good power in her hands, and I feel like she’s pretty fearless in there.”
Entering the fight as focused as she’s ever been, Budd knows how close she is to becoming the Bellator Women’s Featherweight Champion.
Female featherweights have been a major talking point this year, as much in Bellator as in the UFC, where the division does not exist. With Cris ‘Cyborg,’ the most well-known female featherweight ever, fighting in the UFC at 140-lb. catchweights, many fans are calling for the creation of a 145 lb. division. Critics on the other hand believe that there are not enough talented female featherweights to create a division for Cyborg – UFC president Dana White among them.
Budd says there is a deep talent pool at 145 lbs., and critics can look no further than the Bellator women’s featherweight division for proof.
“I feel like we’re definitely there,” she said. “There’s tons of talented girls and I feel like Bellator is the place to be right now if you’re a featherweight. I watched Cyborg’s last two fights at 140 and she’s already said it a thousand times, she’s not gonna make 135. So I think it’s only a matter of time before they open up the 145 lb. division in the UFC and we’re gonna see even more talent in that weight class come through. But right now we have all the best females at 145 signed for Bellator and I love being a part of their organization.”
Whether other promotions will follow suit in the future, Julia Budd knows she’s in the place to be for 145 lb. female fighters. With a win next weekend, she’ll look to stake her claim as the featherweight to beat.
Julia Budd fights Arlene Blencowe at Bellator 162 on Oct. 21, live on Spike.
