The Bellator MMA women’s featherweight champ discusses her win over Talita Nogueira at Bellator 202 and her history with her UFC counterpart in this FanSided MMA exclusive.

More than three years after they were first scheduled to fight, Julia Budd finally got to share the cage with Talita Nogueira and the Bellator MMA women’s featherweight champion delivered the best performance of her career.

After a frustrating outing in her first title defense against Arlene Blencowe late last year that ended in a split decision verdict, the Port Moody, British Columbia resident entered the cage looking to make a statement in the Bellator 202 main event and that she did. Budd was in control from the outset, showcasing the power and the all-around skill set that makes her an elite talent on the women’s side of the sport, punishing Nogueira with strikes and slams before putting away the Brazilian late in the third round to successfully defend her title for the second time.

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“I felt like it was definitely a great performance,” Budd said while speaking with FanSided on Monday afternoon. “I was real happy with how I put it together; I was able to use my Muay Thai background and showcase myself as a complete mixed martial artist.

“I was supposed to fight Talita three years ago. She pulled out of the fight a couple weeks before, so we had a full training camp preparing to fight her, so this was just exciting for me as a martial artist to have the challenge I wanted back then. She’s a black belt Brazilian jiu jitsu world champion and that was huge for me. It gives me confidence that the skills I’ve been building and working are coming together.”

Coming off her fight with Blencowe in December, the 35-year-old titleholder heard a great deal of criticism about her performance, as well as her opponent suggesting that she had won the fight.

Neither sat particularly well with the former Muay Thai standout, but instead of letting it bog her down, Budd looked at her matchup with Nogueira as a chance to remind fans and critics alike about what she’s capable of inside the cage.

And after very little went as planned in her first title defense, her second appearance as champion went perfectly.

“My game plan for Arlene was to get her on her back and beat the crap out of her – from the opening bell all the way to the end,” explained Budd, who alternated wins and losses through the first four fights of her career before rattling off 10 consecutive victories. “I shot my first takedown and tore my rotator cuff and I ended up breaking my right ankle, but that’s all part of being a champion is adapting and it actually gave me more confidence going into this fight.

“There was also all the little stuff that I had read after I fought Arlene where people had told her that they thought she won the fight and all these little things that pissed me off to where I wanted to go out there and win this fight and make a statement.

“I received a lot of criticism after my last fight and sure, it can break you down in the beginning, but you’ve got to rebuild, regroup and use it as motivation. We weren’t going to let the critics define us or the way our careers are – we’re going to go out there and do what we do.

“This is how we imagined it going and it came together perfectly. It was awesome.”

Congratulations to world champion @JuliaBudd for defending her featherweight title at #Bellator202 last night! #AndStill So #BellatorNation, who does "The Jewel" take on next? pic.twitter.com/thxK9hXTWF — Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) July 14, 2018

As is the case following every fight – and especially championship bouts – the question on everyone’s mind after Budd banished Nogueira from the ranks of the unbeaten is whom the featherweight queen would face next?

The Canadian champion partially addressed the issue in her post-fight comments, acknowledging the organization’s efforts to sign competitors and add depth to the division and challenging those that may want to challenge for her title in the future to be more active and work their way up the divisional ladder, rather than lobbying for a title shot when they have yet to earn their stripes in the Bellator cage.

“I’ve been really happy with Bellator and I know they’re trying to build the division,” she reiterated on Monday. “It’s not Bellator that isn’t making these fights happen. They’ve signed all these girls, but the girls aren’t getting their butts in the cage and fighting. You guys have got to get in there and fight.

“After my fight with Arlene, there were people saying, ‘I’d fight her tomorrow’ and they’ve had one fight or hadn’t fought in Bellator yet. That’s frustrating. I know everyone has their own journey and their own path, but don’t think you’re going to get a title shot when you haven’t stepped in the cage yet and you’re 1-1 overall. F*** that! That’s bull****!”

“… Don’t think you’re going to get a title shot when you haven’t stepped in the cage yet and you’re 1-1 overall. F*** that! That’s bull****!”

While some may look at that fiery response and want to see a champion trying to call the shots, the truth is that Budd has been pragmatic about her career from the very beginning, which is why despite a couple different opportunities in the past, the Gibson MMA product has yet to share the cage with the consensus top fighter in the featherweight ranks, reigning UFC champion Cris Cyborg.

“I seen stuff saying that I’m running from her and that’s why I signed with Bellator. Give me a break,” scoffed Budd. “What we live for as martial artists is challenging ourselves and I’ve faced all the best featherweights in the world, except for her, so that challenge is something our team (has talked about).

“It’s interesting because when I was first looking to make my MMA debut, that is who I got offered with Strikeforce. Before I had even been on the mats grappling or wrestling, they were like, ‘You want to come over? You’re fighting Cris Cyborg’ and I hadn’t even made the transition from Muay Thai into MMA.”

At the time, Budd was less than two years removed from wrapping up her kickboxing career and yet to make her mixed martial arts debut, while Cyborg had already amassed a 10-1 record, including her breakthrough victory over Gina Carano and subsequent wins over Marloes Coenen and Jan Finney.

“I seen stuff saying that I’m running from her and that’s why I signed with Bellator. Give me a break. I didn’t run from you; I’m just not going to fight you on a week’s notice or as my first fight before I’d even gotten my feet wet in the sport when you’ve been killing people.”

Their careers intersected once more when both were competing under the Invicta FC banner as well when the promotion had to do some shuffling of the deck just a handful of weeks before a fight card.

“I was supposed to fight Fiona Muxlow on the prelims and she was headlining the show and as the fight got closer, Ediane Gomes pulled out of the fight with Cyborg,” said Budd, recalling the musical chairs that took place in advance of Invicta FC 5. “I got a call from Invicta saying, ‘We’re taking your opponent and giving her to Cris or you can fight her’ and it was two-and-a-half weeks before the fight and we were like, ‘No; that makes no sense. We’re not fighting her in two weeks with zero promotion.’ It wasn’t a smart career move to do that in that short amount of time.

“Now I’ve had 14 MMA fights and I’ve established myself, so I’m here; I’m not running from anyone.”

“Then, of course, word gets around that I said I’m not fighting Cris Cyborg and you know how it goes. They gave her my opponent and we were kind of pissed off about that and I had one more fight with them and then we got an amazing offer from Bellator.”

Now several years later, the two stand atop the featherweight division in their respective organization and after passing up on a couple bad opportunities to share the cage with her earlier in her career, Budd made her stance on a potential showdown with Cyborg in the future as clear as possible.

“Now I’ve had 14 MMA fights and I’ve established myself, so I’m here; I’m not running from anyone.”

Time will tell if a matchup between the top two fighters in the women’s featherweight division will ever come together and while Budd definitely wants to fight again before the year is out, she’s first going to enjoy her victory over Nogueira along with the cloudless blue skies and wave of hot temperatures washing over the Lower Mainland at the moment.

Then she’ll turn her attention to coaching, readying Lance Gibson Jr. for his second professional bout before stepping back in the cage herself.

“We’re a tight-knit family unit, so Junior – Lance Gibson Jr. – is going to be in the cage again before I get in the cage,” said Budd, who is married to her long-time coach and former UFC competitor Lance Gibson. “We’re talking to Bellator and getting him in there, getting him his second professional win because he’s one of my main coaches; it’s me, him and Lance Gibson Sr.

“That was another thing about the Arlene fight is that he was fighting right after me and it was just too much on us as a family. It worked out great and I believe everything happens for a reason, but we also realized that I’m going to fight, then it’s his turn to fight and then I’ll fight again because we do everything for each other.”