Julia Budd dominated from start to finish, defeating Gabrielle Holloway at Bellator 133 in Fresno on Friday night, Feb. 13.
It was Budd’s debut fight with Bellator, and the Sunshine Coast native, now calling Port Moody home, certainly didn’t disappoint.
All three judges scored the fight in her favour (30-26, 30-25, 30-24) improving her record to 7-2. Budd is now on a five-fight winning streak with three of those wins by stoppage.
Spike TV colour analyst Jimmy Smith called it a “dominating 15 minutes for Julia Budd.” And he too had the fight totally in her favour, scoring it 30-26.
Budd had good early control in the first round with several quality takedowns. Budd used a good combination of knees and elbows when she got Holloway to the mat, and they did some damage.
In the latter part of the opening round, Budd remained in control with more strikes to the head and knees to the body and solid ground and pound when she got Holloway to the mat.
It was more of the same in the second round, with another take down of Holloway 40 seconds into the round. Again, Budd peppered Holloway with strikes and knees to the body unloaded on Holloway’s thigh area.
Smith described the fight as a wipeout with a minute to go in round two.
At the start of round three, Holloway showed a bit of game as she managed a good takedown of Budd. But Budd fought out of the hold and managed to bring the fight back to the standing position where she landed a good overhand to Holloway’s face, which resulted in yet another takedown and more ground and pound.
The rest of the round, Budd smothered Holloway until the final bell.
“She didn’t get the finish and that was the only thing missing,” Smith said.
Holloway took the fight on less than two week’s notice after Budd’s original opponent, Talita Nogueira, had to pull out of the fight due to an injury.
Following the fight, Budd took to her Twitter account to thank her team.
“Thank you to my teammates and coaches, all my family and fans who watched and to Bellator MMA for allowing me to do what I love.”
Calls to Budd for a further interview were not returned by press time.
