Marloes Coenen to make Bellator debut Oct. 24

Marloes Coenen

Yesterday Bellator announced that Marloes Coenen will make her debut on the Oct. 24 show at the Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane, KS. Her opponent will be Italian fighter Annalisa Bucci. This will be on the main card on Spike TV. When Scott Coker took over Bellator, I was not surprised that he signed Marloes as she is a former Strikeforce champ and he likes her. Marloes has chosen not to drop to 135lb. If she did, she would be an immediate UFC title contender. And that's where the money is. Instead she had two fights in Invicta and things didn't go well for her. She won her first fight over Romy Ruyssen but she broke her hand. Then she lost to Cris Cyborg. With Cyborg dropping to 135, Marloes is a very big fish in a very small 145lb pond. Maybe Coker and matchmaker Rich Chou can develop talent in that weight class but the talent level is low right now. For example, I've seen a couple of Annalisa Bucci's fights and she's a kickboxer with zero ground skills. We see this a lot in some European countries because kickboxing is more popular than MMA and it can be tough finding decent MMA training. Her record is 7-3 and her latest fight was a win over Maria Hougaard on a show in Copenhagen in May. Maria will be on the next Invicta show but that doesn't mean she's good. It just shows how low the talent level is. Before that Annalisa lost to Swedish fighter Pannie Kianzad who currently fights for Cage Warriors. She's a very good fighter who could end up elsewhere. I think when three promotions are fighting over scraps and signing fighters who aren't ready for prime time, the talent won't develop properly. We'll see how competitive this match is. There is another women's fight on the prelims of the Oct. 17 Bellator show in Council Bluffs, IA. It will be Jozette Cotton vs Holly Lawson. This fight will be at 150lb. Jozette is from Omaha. She's 4-0. I watched one of her fights. She's a brawler and very green. I don't see her being competitive against a quality fighter. Holly is making her MMA debut at age 36. So I dunno if she's any good. We'll see.