Marloes Coenen says it was ‘big shock’ that Bellator initially wanted women’s title fight on prelims

Things have changed considerably for Marloes Coenen in recent weeks. She has a new opponent, there will be no title on the line and the card placement of her fight has been altered.

Initially, though, the Dutch women’s MMA star found it to be a head scratcher that Bellator wanted what would have been a women’s featherweight title fight between her and Julia Budd on the prelims of Bellator 155.

“It was a big shock to me,” Coenen told MMA Fighting. “I know it wasn’t [Bellator president] Scott [Coker], because when I was in Strikeforce I was always co-main event. I was like, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening?'”

Bellator got questions like that, too, from fans and media. The promotion said in a statement that it wanted to put the title fight on the prelims to build an audience for the Bellator.com online stream. That still didn’t really satisfy Coenen, a pioneer in women’s mixed martial arts.

“I don’t know who did it,” Coenen said. “Even from a business point of view, women in MMA are so popular. If you have women on the roster, I would put them on the main card.”

Coenen (23-6) will be on the main card now. It just won’t be against Budd, who pulled out with a back …

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