The Return of Valérie Létourneau

The Return of Valérie Létourneau

By Claudia Peterson

Bellator 213 goes down in Hawaii on Saturday December 15th. The card will be headlined by a championship bout between current flyweight champ Ilima Lei-McFarlane against Valérie Létourneau. Having just seen Valentina Shevchenko against Joanna Jędrzejczyk at UFC 231 last Saturday, I could not help but think back to UFC 193, when Joanna defended her strawweight title against Létourneau.

The landscape looks quite different now. Whenever I think of Valérie Létourneau, I remember her hard-fought battle against now former strawweight champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk. Back in November of 2015, Joanna defended her title against Létourneau in what became a 5 round death match where Létourneau was severely outlanded by strikes and leg kicks. She fought a very tough battle, and even though the result was a unanimous decision loss for the Canadian, Trouble earned the respect of many viewers that night.

Before entering the UFC, Létourneau fought at bantamweight and has losses to well-known fighters like Sarah Kaufman, Alexis Davis, and Claudia Gadelha. She then lost to Roxanne Modafferi in an effort to get into the TUF House for TUF 18. Létourneau later debuted in the UFC in 2014, and earned wins over Milana Dudieva, Jessica Rakoczy, and Maryna Moroz, all by decision. She then was given a title shot against champ Joanna Jędrzejczyk. After her failed championship bid, Valerie went on to lose to Joanne Calderwood and then lost a razor-thin split decision Viviane Pereira, a fight one can argue she won. She was then hastily released from the UFC.

Now on a strong comeback, Létourneau who is a natural 125 lbs fighter, seems to have found a stable home at flyweight in Bellator, and has won her first two fights with the division, her most recent win being one over the highly acclaimed new comer Kristina Williams. It has taken a few years, but it is amazing to see the 35-year-old mother so close to reaching Gold once again.

I hope this will be the beginning of a great comeback for a great fighter.