Bellator Fighting Championships has lined up the first bout for the first of its three “Summer Series” events, as Jessica Aguilar will meet Carla Esparza at Bellator 46 on June 25 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
A competitor in Bellator’s Season 3 women’s 115-pound tournament, Aguilar had a four-fight winning streak snapped by eventual tournament champion Zoila Gurgel in September at Bellator 31. Though the fight was a highly competitive one, Gurgel walked away with a controversial split decision. Prior to that bout, “Jag” had run through Lynn Alvarez in the tournament quarterfinals, submitting her foe with an arm-triangle just over four minutes into the contest.
Like Aguilar, Esparza was also a participant in the aforementioned women’s tournament. However, Esparza did not fare as well as the American Top Team representative, losing in the first round to then-unbeaten Megumi Fujii at Bellator 24 in August. The loss was the first and only of Esparza’s nascent pro career, as the Team Oyama fighter rebounded from the defeat to outpoint Nina Ansaroff in December. Only 23 years old, Esparza holds all but one of her career wins by submission.