Hawaii’s world champions in mixed martial arts are getting busy.
Two days after the UFC announced featherweight champion Max Holloway will headline UFC 223 on Saturday as an injury replacement, Bellator announced Ilima-Lei Macfarlane’s first flyweight title defense.
The Punahou alumna, who won the inaugural women’s 125-pound title with a fifth-round submission of Emily Ducote in November, will fight Alejandra Lara in the main event of Bellator 201 on June 29 at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif.
Macfarlane, 27, is 7-0 as a professional with five wins by stoppage, including four by submission.
Lara, 23, is 7-1 since making her professional debut in 2013 and won her only fight in Bellator with a third-round submission of Lena Ovchynnikova in December.
Macfarlane is one of three MMA world champions in Hawaii scheduled to fight over the next two months.
Waianae’s Holloway, the UFC’s 145-pound champion, will fight Khabib Nurmagomedov for the vacant lightweight title in Brooklyn, N.Y., on pay-per-view.
Holloway will attempt to become the second fighter in UFC history to hold multiple world titles at the same time.
Mililani alumna Angela Lee, the ONE women’s world atomweight champion, will defend her 115-pound title against Mei Yamaguchi at ONE Championship: Unstoppable Dreams on May 18 in Singapore.
That fight is a rematch of Lee’s unanimous decision over Yamaguchi to become the organization’s first women’s world champion. It will be broadcast online for a small fee.
Macfarlane’s title defense will be broadcast on Paramount Network, which used to be Spike TV.