Undefeated Anastasia Yankova Booked For Bellator 161

Bellator MMA continues to add fights to their Bellator 161 show, just six weeks away from the show. 

Former Russian Muay Thai champion Anastasia Yankova came into Bellator highly touted, and emerged victorious in her April debut against Anjela Pink. Next up on Yankova’s dockett is the undefeated Veta Arteaga. 

Bellator sent Fightful.com a press release, which you can check out below. 

A flyweight bout pitting Anastasia Yankova (3-0) against Veta Arteaga (2-0) has been added to the SPIKE-televised portion of “Bellator 161: Kongo vs. Johnson,” which takes place on September 16 at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park, Texas.

The fight joins a main card that features a heavyweight main event pitting French phenom Cheick Kongo (24-10-2) against the streaking Tony Johnson(10-2). Additional main and preliminary contests will be announced shortly.

Doors for the event open at 7:45 p.m. CT local time and the first preliminary bout – which streams live on Bellator.com and The Bellator Mobile App — begins at 8:00 p.m. CT. Tickets for the event start at just $25 and can be purchased now at Bellator.com, Ticketmaster, or the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park Box Office.

The 25-year-old Yankova will make her second appearance of the year, after garnering the attention of the MMA world with an impressive promotional debut in Italy at “Bellator 152: Pitbull vs. Souza.” The Russian submission specialist began her professional career 2-0, before earning her first victory under the direction of Bellator MMA with an impressive first round armbar victory. An avid artist outside of the cage, Yankova hopes to carve out her next masterpiece when she returns to action on Sept. 16.

Since making her professional debut earlier this year, Arteaga has strung together back-to-back wins, including a unanimous decision victory over Jackie Vandenburgh in her promotional debut at “Bellator 155: Carvalho vs. Manhoef.” Thus far, each of Arteaga’s first two wins have gone to the judges’ table, leaving the 28-year-old Boise, Idaho native itching for her first career stoppage win.

Yankova said earlier this year that she opted to sign with Bellator in large part due to the freedom to fight elsewhere. 

Photo courtesy of Bellator MMA