Bellator MMA has scheduled its first female featherweight title fight on March 3 in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
The 145-pound championship bout between Marloes Coenen and Julia Budd will headline Bellator 174 inside WinStar World Casino and Resort. Officials confirmed the bout on Monday, following a report by MMAFighting.com.
Coenen-Budd will mark only the second female title fight in Bellator history. The promotion crowned Zoila Frausto as its inaugural 115-pound champion in 2010, but Frausto never defended the title and officially vacated it in 2013.
Coenen (23-7) is a former Strikeforce bantamweight champion and is 2-1 since signing with Bellator in 2014. Fighting out of the Netherlands, Coenen suffered a stunning upset loss to Alexis Dufresne in her last bout in May.
Budd (9-2) is riding a seven-fight winning streak. Her only professional losses have come at the hands of current UFC stars Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes. The 33-year-old Canadian is 3-0 in the Bellator cage.
This matchup was originally supposed to take place in May, but Budd was forced to withdraw from the event, clearing the way for Coenen to suffer the surprising loss to Dufresne.
Both Bellator MMA and UFC have announced plans to crown a female featherweight champion. UFC will do so Feb. 11 in Brooklyn, New York, in a fight between Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie.
