Hawaii came away a winner in MMA event

Saturday night was a fight promoter’s dream.

The combination of a headliner with local ties, a championship bout, and a boisterous crowd of 6,500 made for the perfect ending to Bellator MMA’s debut appearance in Hawaii.

“You had to be here,” Bellator CEO Scott Coker said. “It was a magical night. Honestly, this was something that will be memorable as a fight promoter. This was a magical environment and I think you guys saw the power of Hawaii.”

The second of back-to-back fight cards at Blaisdell Arena this weekend ended with flyweight world champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane choking out Valerie Letourneau in her first fight home.

The Punahou alumna was the driving force in bringing major mixed martial arts back to the islands and was rewarded with a celebration that rivaled some of the all-time great environments in MMA.

“I think that there is a couple of times in my life I’ve felt that and I’ve been doing this a long time,” Coker said. “I think that the last time I heard a crowd that loud, honestly, was we had 15,000 people in San Jose Arena when Frank Shamrock fought Cung Le. That was a big fight for Strikeforce at the time.”

That fight took place more than 10 years ago. Since then, Coker has done shows with Strikeforce and now Bellator at the Sears Center, Honda Center, the Forum and Madison Square Garden, and in countries including England, Ireland and Italy.

But never in Hawaii, which despite its long history of mixed martial arts events before the sport went mainstream, has not drawn a major promotion.

The UFC has found countless reasons not to come, but Coker jumped at the opportunity as soon as he had his headliner in Macfarlane, who improved to 9-0 in her MMA career.

Although she lives and trains in San Diego, her homecoming was a big deal to the local MMA community. The show was sold out days in advance.

There were fewer than 100 tickets remaining, according to Bellator officials on Wednesday, which was the first day of public events held leading up to the fight.

“The people cared about the fighters that were fighting and here you could just feel it,” Coker said. “They love Ilima and I think it’s because of who she is. What you see is what you get.”

Macfarlane displayed a rare amount of emotion for a fighter about to enter a cage. With tears streaming down her face, she walked out to a thunderous applause from the crowd, who watched a slide show of Macfarlane’s life play on the screen behind her.

“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,” Macfarlane said. “I always joke that it’s from my mom. She’s from Waianae. My dad, when I’m reserved and calm (it’s) because he’s a Punahou boy, and it’s my mom when I’m crazy.”

Macfarlane flipped the switch when the bell sounded. After two rounds to figure out her opponent, Macfarlane put Letourneau away in the third. First, it was a takedown, then a quick transition into a triangle she eventually worked into a choke after a countless number of elbows to the head.

Of all the thoughts and expectations Macfarlane had when she first found out she was headlining a Hawaii show, the finish was all that was missing from her dreams.

“I didn’t really picture the end of the fight honestly when I was visualizing it,” Macfarlane said. “I didn’t want to picture it because I didn’t want to get my hopes up about imagining the crowd erupting and me winning because if it doesn’t happen I’m going to be heartbroken.

“When it did happen it exceeded my expectations. All eyes (were) on Hawaii tonight and we all won. This is a win for everybody.”

That includes Bellator, which put on 23 events in 2018 and plans to do more next year.

“I would definitely love to come back once a year and do something big,” Coker said. “Maybe even twice a year.”