Undefeated WBC International featherweight champion Heather Hardy (20-0, 4 KOs in boxing) won her professional MMA debut with a bloody third round TKO over Alice Yauger - as part of Bellator's debut in New York City. The event took place at Madison Square Garden.
Hardy, of Brooklyn, had the crowd going wild when she dropped Yauger with a vicious right. Hardy suffered a deep cut over her left eye following an accidental head-butt. Even the New York crowd gasped when blood gushed down Hardy's face. Hardy wiped it off, then wiped out Yauger while the crowd roared.
"I think I just fell in love. I'm hooked," she said. "I can't feel it, but I have stitches in my face."
Hardy, who is promoted by Lou DiBella as a boxer, last fought in May with a decision win over Edina Kiss.
Bellator made its Madison Square Garden debut seven months after UFC christened the arena in the MMA genre with a record $17.7 million gate. Bellator was going to fall well shy of that massive box office bank, but for the No. 2 MMA promotion in the United States, just snagging a spot at MSG was a needed credibility boost.
Bellator will wait to find out if the pay-per-view buys (at $49.95 a clip) hit 200,000, the total the company aimed for to count as a major success. Bellator broadcast on pay-per-view for only the second time in promotional history, signaling another step in its growth as a rival for the industry-leading UFC. Bellator staged its only previous pay-per-view event in May 2014, shortly before CEO Scott Coker took over the promotion.
Bellator loaded the card with some of the biggest names in MMA to make a splash in New York.
Bellator, founded only in 2008, has failed to build that mainstream star that UFC has in the mold of Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor. Bellator has eschewed the PPV model and built its fan base on the strength of live TV cards on Spike (broadcast home of Saturday's undercard) and by signing past-their-primetime MMA players to main event their biggest cards. Kimbo Slice, Ken Shamrock, Royce Gracie and Rampage Jackson all took their turn in main event bouts more spectacle than sport that delivered record ratings for Bellator.