Australian Arlene Blencowe will make her Bellator debut against Adrienna Jenkins on May 15 at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California. Jenkins steps in to replace Alexis Dufresne, after Dufresne withdrew from the fight against Blencowe after falling pregnant.
The match-up was first announced by Combat Press and later confirmed via press-release from the promotion.
Jenkins and Blencowe will face-off on the non-televised preliminary portion of Bellator 137. The event will be headlined by a Bellator middleweight title fight between current champion Brandon Halsey and Kendall Grove.
A former women’s world boxing title holder, Blencowe (5-4) signed to Bellator late last year after an impressive run on the Australian regional scene which included knock-out victory over New Zealand fighter Faith Van Duin in August.
Experience will be on Jenkins’ side who brings an impressive MMA record of 17-5. The 33 year-old made her professional debut back in 2004 and stepped away from fighting in 2010 following three straight losses. After a five year break, Jenkins returned back to action last weekend on a Gladiators Challenge card with result and opponent of that unknown.
Main Card:
- Brandon Halsey (c) vs Kendall Grove
- Eduardo Dantas vs Mike Richman
- Fernando Gonzalez vs Curtis Millender
- Darrion Caldwell vs Rafael Silva
Preliminary Card:
- A.J. Matthews vs Ben Reiter
- Virgil Zwicker vs Razak Al-Hassan
- Joe Taimanglo vs Antonio Duarte
- Jordan Parsons vs Julio Cesar Neves Jr.
- Jesse Juarez vs Ricky Rainey
Non-televised Preliminary Card:
- John Yoo vs Albert Morales
- Shawn Bunch vs Rolando Perez
- Steve Kozola vs Ian Butler
- Adrienna Jenkins vs Arlene Blencowe