Julia Budd still feels like she’s living in a dream.
The mixed martial arts fighter from Roberts Creek made history on March 3 when she set three new records.
She became the first woman to headline a Bellator MMA fight, the first Canadian to challenge for a gold win in the cage and was crowned the first female featherweight champion of Bellator.
That was the plan, Budd told Coast Reporter back in January, but the accomplishing of a goal long held is a bit surreal for the fighter.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Budd told Coast Reporter after her big win, on March 7.
“It feels good, but it still feels like a dream.”
Budd had long prepared for the women’s featherweight title match against veteran Marloes Coenen before they squared off in the Bellator MMA cage at the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla., on March 3.
“I had studied my opponent and I knew about her for so many years. She’s a legend in mixed martial arts and I think I was expecting the toughest opponent that I’ve ever faced,” Budd said.
A highlight of the fight for Budd was finding out she was well prepared and able to dominate Coenen in the ring.
She spent most of the first three rounds taking down the seasoned Coenen and landing blow after blow. Then in the fourth, Budd was able to get the mount and kept pummelling Coenen with fists and elbows until referee John McCarthy stopped the fight and Budd was awarded the victory.
Immediately following her loss to Budd, still bloodied and sweating, Coenen announced her retirement from the sport of MMA.
“It shocked everybody. I don’t think anybody was expecting that,” Budd said.
“Before the fight she was saying how much she was going to win, so it kind of took me by surprise.”
Coenen’s decision might have been influenced by the fury unleashed on her moments before by Budd, who admits she had a personal score to settle.
“I had to pull out of the first fight [with Coenen] due to a back injury last year and because I had to pull out she was calling me mentally weak,” Budd said.
“It lit a fire in me that I hadn’t felt in a long time because I never talk about my opponents. I never say anything like that and that really pissed me off.”
She took her anger out in the Bellator cage on Coenen and at the end of the fight Budd made a point to say, “Don’t ever call me mentally weak.”
Budd said she ultimately got an apology from Coenen for the name calling, but the apology didn’t feel half as good as the win.
“I exceeded my expectations and I feel like I did exactly what I had visualized for so many months of me doing and I just really feel proud of myself and it feels so good to do this for my team,” Budd said.
Although originally from the Coast, Budd has been living in Port Moody for the last 10 years where she’s trained with a close-knit group at Gibson MMA.
“It’s been a journey for all of us, I feel,” Budd said.
“It was a dream come true to just be able to walk into the gym yesterday with the belt and see all the faces that have been watching me try to get this for a long time.”
Budd said she definitely felt the love from her Sunshine Coast fans and followers this week as well.
“I just want to say a big thank you to the Sunshine Coast for all the support. I really felt it,” she said.
Budd plans to take a little time to let her win settle in before she looks for more featherweight fights to conquer.
“I’m hoping that Bellator might come to Canada in the summer and that is my dream – to defend the belt on home soil,” Budd said, noting that will likely be her next big fight.
“That’s kind of the next step. We don’t know who my opponent’s going to be yet, but for now I’m just kind of enjoying the moment and celebrating it with my team.”
