It’s been some time since we’ve seen Julia Budd go well with up in motion for an MMA struggle. To search out the final time that the previous Bellator MMA Girls’s Featherweight Champion set foot inside a cage, you’d need to journey again in time to the evening of June 16, 2023.
That late spring night, Budd (16-7 MMA), having already dropped her first struggle within the 2023 PFL common season just a few months earlier by the use of unanimous resolution after three rounds to eventual 2023 PFL Girls’s Featherweight Champion Larissa Pacheco (23-5 MMA), she wanted to win towards Martina Jindrova (6-5 MMA) to place herself in place to stay alive within the playoff chase for the summer season. Outcomes later down the cardboard spelled the top of Julia Budd’s run for the 2023 PFL season.
Afterward, Budd had been scheduled to return to the PFL SmartCage over the Thanksgiving vacation weekend the next November for a showcase struggle in PFL 10 versus Kayla Harrison, however the contest was scrubbed previous to the occasion because of her withdrawal from the cardboard. Julia Budd was reduce from the promotion not lengthy after.
Julia Budd launched from PFL after withdrawing from Kayla Harrison struggle at 2023 PFL championships https://t.co/LvXiETOriZ
— MMA Combating (@MMAFighting) November 10, 2023
In her stead, Harrison fought Aspen Ladd within the showcase struggle that autumn Friday evening, besting her (unanimous resolution) after quarter-hour of motion. Kayla Harrison started her present three-fight profitable streak with that contest
Julia Budd Able to Finish Hiatus
Since that cancelled bout, Julia Budd has been ready for her subsequent probability to set foot within the cage. On Friday afternoon, she took her first step towards placing the previous behind her.
With the brand new International Struggle League (GFL) set to carry its choice assembly for its inaugural season in a matter of weeks, the group has frolicked placing collectively its 300-fighter roster from which the six 20-member groups will likely be drafted. Budd has been named among the many ladies to be signed to the GFL forward of draft day.
Fights will likely be structured a little bit bit otherwise within the International Struggle League when in comparison with different MMA shops all through the world, with emphasis positioned on avoiding drastic weight cuts earlier than contests. Girls will compete within the GFL in both strawweight (120 lbs), flyweight (130 lbs), or bantamweight (140 lbs) divisions. Every group may have two fighters from every of the ten weight courses drafted in the course of the choice assembly.
Julia Budd Can Make Waves in GFL
This new league could possibly be simply what Julia Budd wants to begin a brand new profitable streak within the sport of MMA. Going into the GFL draft on the finish of this month, she presently has a 2-3 report over her final 5 fights. Forward of Budd’s win over Jindrova, she was on a three-fight shedding streak.
Throughout that span, Julia Budd dropped fights to the likes of Genah Fabian, Aspen Ladd, and the aforementioned Larissa Pacheco. Earlier than that, she went 4-1, holding the Bellator MMA Girls’s Featherweight Championship in that course of.
Budd served because the Bellator queen at 145 lbs for nearly three full years, together with a victory over Arlene Blencowe (16-10 MMA, 9-6 Bellator) in her first protection of the title in December of 2017 by the use of break up resolution. It was Julia Budd’s second win over the fighter nicknamed “Angerfist”, having already crushed Blencowe by majority resolution in October of 2016.
It All Comes All the way down to Draft Day for “The Jewel”
On the core, this part of Julia Budd’s MMA profession boils all the way down to the occasions of Friday, Jan. 24, draft day within the GFL. Though 300 fighters have been signed to the league, simply over a 3rd of that quantity will hear their names referred to as in the course of the choice assembly.
Whether or not or not Budd is among the many 120 fighters drafted to a GFL group stays to be seen. Even when Julia Budd finds herself on the surface wanting in with regards to the league, she’ll be capable to take a look at free company within the aftermath of draft day.
On the similar time, nevertheless, it could be borderline silly for any group on this league to go on Julia Budd when the draft rolls round in just a few quick weeks. Having a championship to her credit score could be the spark that groups across the league search for.
