{"id":235100,"date":"2017-04-22T08:59:54","date_gmt":"2017-04-22T15:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=235100"},"modified":"2017-04-22T08:59:54","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T15:59:54","slug":"another-former-ufc-title-challenger-close-signing-bellator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/valerie-letourneau\/another-former-ufc-title-challenger-close-signing-bellator\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Another former UFC title challenger is close to signing with Bellator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to a report from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2017\/4\/21\/15391170\/former-ufc-title-challenger-valerie-letourneau-on-verge-of-signing-with-bellator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MMAFighting.com<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-rafael-carvalho-head-kick-flattens-melvin-manhoef-bellator-176\/\">Bellator MMA<\/a> is on the verge of signing<a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-mcdonald\/bellator-signs-another-former-ufc-title-challenger\/\"> another former UFC title challenger<\/a>. That title challenger is Canada&#8217;s Val\u00e9rie L\u00e9tourneau, who fought for the UFC strawweight title in 2015, putting forth a valiant effort against dominant champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.<\/p>\n<p>L\u00e9tourneau is currently on an unfortunate, three-fight losing streak, having dropped this fight to Jedrzejczyk, succumbed to strikes dealt by Joanne Calderwood, and given up a razor-thin decision to\u00a0Viviane Pereira back in December. After these losses, <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/valerie-letourneau\/valerie-letourneau-no-longer-ufc\/\">she was released by the promotion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The obvious benefit of \u00a0L\u00e9tourneau&#8217;s signing with Bellator MMA, of course, is that Bellator has a women&#8217;s flyweight division.<\/p>\n<p>L\u00e9tourneau has spent her recent career competing in the 115-pound strawweight division, a division that she has a very difficult time getting down to. Her only alternative in the UFC is the 135-pound women&#8217;s bantamweight division, where she is at a significant size disadvantage. Indeed, the Canadian is a natural flyweight, but the UFC does not currently have a women&#8217;s flyweight division.<\/p>\n<p>If L\u00e9tourneau joins the Bellator fold as reported, she&#8217;ll be the latest in a long string of high-profile fighters to do so. Over the last few years, Bellator has gone on a signing spree, picking up notable names like Josh Thomson, Benson Henderson, Phil Davis, Matt Mitrione, Rory MacDonald, Sergei Kharitonov, Alessio Sakara, Josh Koscheck, Chael Sonnen, Wanderlei Silva, Fedor Emelianenko, Lorenz Larkin, Ryan Bader, and Michael MacDonald.<\/p>\n<p>L\u00e9tourneau would join a flyweight division that is home to promising talent like\u00a0Ilima-Lei Macfarlane,\u00a0Anastasia Yankova,\u00a0Veta Arteaga,\u00a0Keri Melendez\u00a0and\u00a0Lena Ovchynnikova.<\/p>\n<p>Bellator was recently <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/report-viacom-tells-bellator-officials-sign-every-single-big-name\/\">given the green light by its deep-pocketed parent company, Viacom<\/a>, to sign any and all high profile free agents. With L\u00e9tourneau on the cusp of signing, the promotion seems to be hell-bent on doing so.<\/p>\n<p>How do you think Val\u00e9rie L\u00e9tourneau will do in the Bellator flyweight division? Sound off, PENN Nation!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 4\/22\/2017.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a report from MMAFighting.com, Bellator MMA is on the verge of signing another former UFC title challenger. That title challenger is Canada&#8217;s Val\u00e9rie L\u00e9tourneau, who fought for the UFC strawweight title in 2015, putting forth a valiant effort against dominant champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. L\u00e9tourneau is currently on an unfortunate, three-fight losing streak, having [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":196891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,10307],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Report: Another former UFC title challenger is close to signing with Bellator | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Long-time UFC strawweight Val\u00e9rie L\u00e9tourneau is reportedly on the verge of signing with MMA&#039;s second biggest promotion, Bellator.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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