Bellator MMA starlet Valerie Loureda has vowed there is more to come from her in 2021 after the Miami stunner’s savage buzzer-beating KO of Tara Graff was placed at number six in the promotion’s best finishes of the year.
Fired up by claims that she was “just an Instagram model”, the 22-year-old Loureda stunned Graff in the second round of their contest at Bellator 243 in Connecticut back in August, landing a thunderous right hand which folded her opponent before following up with a relentless ground assault to finish the contest.
The victory improved rising star Loureda to 3-0 in professional MMA, and was enough to hand her a top-10 spot in Bellator’s finishes of the year, as revealed by the promotion on Saturday.
Rather than rest on her laurels, taekwondo queen Loureda vowed to go even better and top the rankings for 2021.
“#6 top knockout of 2020… breaking records at 22. Next year I will be best knockout watch!!” wrote the Florida flyweight star, who trains out of the fabled American Top Team gym in Coconut Creek and counts the likes of UFC star Jorge Masvidal and pop sensation Demi Lovato as among her fans.
Loureda celebrated her destruction of Graff by breaking into a dance in the cage – showing the kind of moves which have won her a growing army of social media admirers.
The young star’s twerking and steady flow of scantily-clad clips on Instagram have led some rivals to claim Loureda is “selling sex not MMA” – but the shapely fighter has thus far used that criticism to fuel her fire for victory.
There seems likely to be plenty more to come from Loureda in 2021 – on social media, but more importantly, in the cage.
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