Women’s featherweight Janay Harding will look to shake off a two-fight losing streak when she takes on Sinead Kavanagh at Bellator 291 this Saturday.
The Dublin, Ireland-based card gives Kavanagh home court advantage in the fight, which is a rematch of the pair’s 2018 match-up — stopped early after Kavanagh suffered a nasty cut.
That gave Harding the TKO win, but she’s just as eager to get back in the cage with Kavanagh given how things ended.
“I really think I won that first round. I felt the momentum internally, you always can kind of have that feeling going into the second round; I was ready, I was excited, I was ready to let go with more things,” Harding recalled during this week’s Bellator 291 media day. “I was sort of feeling her out for that first round, but I still feel like the elbows were putting me ahead on the scorecards, and defending the takedowns and that sort of thing played in my favor.”
The cut that opened up led to the stoppage, to the dismay of Irish fight fans. Asked whether she thought the bout should have continued, Harding replied by saying that “I’m no cutman. Looking back on it, something that I always sort of say is that one of the negatives that happened with the cut is that she kept touching it. I know that obviously touching it opens it up, it causes the blood to come out more and makes it harder for the cutmen to work on it.”
“I would have obviously, definitively — I was excited for round two. It wasn’t like I was standing there expecting them to stop the fight as well. I definitely wanted a second round, but like I said, I’m no cutman. I don’t know how much you can or can’t work on it.”
However, Harding also pointed out that it wasn’t just a single cut, “it was two as well, so I’m assuming that played a factor. Unfortunately, that’s the way it goes. I’ve been cut in fights, and I know, obviously I just haven’t touched it and just hoped for the best, to make sure that the ref doesn’t or the doctor doesn’t stop it off. It’s a combination I guess of a few factors, but this time at least we finally get to have a round two.”
Janay Harding and Sinead Kavanagh run it back at Bellator 291 this Saturday, February 25, 2023 at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
