UFC bantamweight & strawweight veteran, Valérie “Trouble” Létourneau has signed with Bellator MMA to compete in her much more natural weight division; flyweight.
The debut is expected to take place in late Summer and was first reported by Ariel Helwani.
Canada’s Valérie Létourneau has signed with Bellator MMA
In 2013 prior to losing an exhibition bout to Roxanne Modafferi in the TUF house, Valérie Létourneau boasted a record of 4-3. Having lost to some of the most elite women in the sport, Cláudia Gadelha and fellow Canadians Sarah Kaufman & Alexis Davis.
About a year after competing on The Ultimate Fighter 18 as a bantamweight, Valérie Létourneau returned to the flyweight division at Absolute FC 21. She quickly finished Jordan Moore to earn another chance at the UFC.
Debuting in Canada at UFC 174, once again as a bantamweight due to the promotion’s lack of women’s flyweight division, Létourneau beat Elizabeth Phillips. Afterward, she made the massive drop down to the women’s strawweight division. Létourneau earned a shot at feared champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk after a successful two-fight run in the division. Despite giving the champion all she could handle in Australia, Joanna Jędrzejczyk won a unanimous decision. After the victory, the reigning champion made it clear Valérie Létourneau had earned her respect.
Seven months later in June of 2016, Valérie Létourneau and Joanne Calderwood competed in the only women’s flyweight bout in UFC history in Ottawa. Calderwood won by KO in round three after a scrappy start to the fight. Six months afterward in December of 2016, Létourneau once again returned to strawweight at UFC 206 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She lost a split decision to promotional newcomer Viviane Pereira, making that her third loss in a row.
Now boasting a record of 8-6, the specifics of the American Top Team product’s debut are not known, aside from the aforementioned plans for it to be in late Summer.
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