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Ilima-Lei Macfarlane brought a sellout crowd of 6,500 to tears during her walkout. Then she brought every single one of them to their feet. Read more

Ilima-Lei Macfarlane brought a sellout crowd of 6,500 to tears during her walkout.

Then she brought every single one of them to their feet.

A thunderous roar that hasn’t been heard at Blaisdell Arena for a mixed martial arts fight in more than decade erupted at the 3:19 mark of the third round when Valerie Letourneau tapped out to a triangle choke in the main event of Bellator 213 on Saturday night.

Macfarlane (9-0) tied a Bellator record with her sixth win by submission to successfully defend her title for the second time, highlighting the return of MMA to the islands.

The fight ended the biggest MMA card here since EliteXC held an event on Oahu in 2008 broadcast on Showtime.

“This is the best night of my life and it’s because of you guys,” the Punahou alumna said in the cage.

Macfarlane delivered on her promise of an emotional walkout. A slideshow of her life beginning with her childhood and ending with her as Bellator champion played on the big screen as she walked out to a Hawaiian chant.

Macfarlane wiped away tears just before she stepped into the cage.

“I’m backstage behind the curtain, the lights go down and I hear the roar of the crowd and I’m crying again. … It really didn’t end until the cage door closed,” Macfarlane said. “I don’t know where it came from, but every fighter is different. Some don’t like to show emotion. I don’t have a problem doing it. That’s just what I do.”

The first round was close to a stalemate, with neither fighter landing significant shots standing and Letourneau stuffing Macfarlane’s only takedown attempt.

Macfarlane came back to score a takedown in the first 15 seconds of the second round and landed a string of back elbows near the cage.

Macfarlane turned it on in the third round, dragging Letourneau to the mat and eventually working her back before setting up the choke.

“I kind of had her in a position that B.J. Penn made famous where he traps the arm down with his leg,” Macfarlane said. “I was initially going for a triangle and honestly we drill this all the time. … I knew I was going to finish her once I got into that position.”

The victory only further established Macfarlane as one of Bellator’s biggest stars.

“She’s been having great fights on the mainland already,” Bellator CEO Scott Coker said. “She’s going to have a great career here. She’ll have a great career fighting in Europe maybe, fighting for us on the mainland. You’re looking at a very talented individual.”

The future is also bright for Makaha’s Nainoa Dung, who at 19 years old stepped up to the big stage and scored a third-round TKO of Haleiwa’s Kona Oliveira to open the main card.

Dung (2-0) responded from a first round in which he spent most of the time on his back to finish the fight after scrambling for mount position, where he finished it with a series of strikes.

Oliveira (1-1) felt it was stopped early, but Dung said it would have only gotten worse.

“He was done. I seen it in his eyes. I seen it in his face. The ref saw it, too,” Dung said. “I wish they should have let it go on a little longer and he could have really seen the serious damage that he would have took.”

Undefeated Neiman Gracie advanced to the semifinals of the Bellator welterweight grand prix with a fourth-round submission of Ed Ruth.

Gracie forced Ruth, a four-time All-American wrestler, to tap out to a rear-naked choke to advance to fight the winner between 170-pound champion Rory MacDonald and Jon Fitch.

The winner of the tournament will be the champion and earn $1 million.

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida won a split decision over Rafael Carvalho in the co-main event in his Bellator debut.

Machida suffered a broken nose but managed to hold on to set up a potential title fight against champion Gegard Mousasi.