Veta Arteaga hopes win over Alejandra Lara at Bellator 235 earns her another title shot

HONOLULU – Veta Arteaga fell short in claiming Bellator’s women’s flyweight title but hopes to get right back into contention this weekend.

Arteaga (5-3 MMA, 4-3 BMMA) takes on fellow former title challenger Alejandra Lara (8-3 MMA, 2-2 BMMA) at Friday’s “Bellator and USO Present: Salute the Troops 2019” card, where she hopes a win would earn her another crack at the title.

In her past outing at Bellator 220 in April, Arteaga had her 125-pound title fight with champ Ilima-Lei Macfarlane stopped by the doctors in the third round due to a big gash she suffered on her forehead in a fight where she really took it to the champion before the stoppage.

And despite not walking away with the belt, Arteaga knew that with that performance, she belonged at the top of the division.

“That fight just made me even more mentally tough than I ever am,” Arteaga told MMA Junkie. “First, I would always be like, ‘Do I deserve to be here at the top-five?’ I know with my performance I did, but I would always question it, and now I know I deserve to be here and I deserve another title shot, but I don’t want to overlook this opponent that I have in front of me on Friday, so I’ve got to go handle business on Friday, and then I’m going to ask for a rematch. Well, I’m going to ask for whoever has the title.”

It was a hard pill to swallow for Arteaga, but she was able to divert her attention right back to training, quickly getting over the loss.

“I never stopped training,” Arteaga said. “After I fought in April, I got cut to the dome, and it got me a couple of stitches. I wasn’t concussed or anything like that, so I was able to still continue running and doing all of my yoga – like, just workouts. I couldn’t get hit in the face or any contact like that, so I never really stopped training.”

“And as far as the emotion part, I just dealt with the emotions. I’m like ‘OK, I’ve got to feel these emotions.’ I was like, ‘Dang.’ I felt frustrated. I felt happy with my performance, and then I felt a moment of a big question mark but, after I felt all those emotions, I’m like, ‘Alrighty, I’m ready. I’m ready to get back into camp,’ so I got the phone call for this fight. I was so happy and grateful, and then when they told me it was in Hawaii, I was more happy and grateful because it’s beautiful out here.”

Macfarlane was keen on rematching Arteaga, commending her for her toughness and dragging her to deep waters, but with Macfarlane set to defend her title a day after at Bellator 236 vs. Kate Jackson, the rematch will have to wait.

But Arteaga said she isn’t too distraught.

“That’s the thing, I wasn’t so set up on the rematch, just because I didn’t want to get disappointed just in case,” Arteaga said. ‘This is a business, just in case if there’s a curveball, and they wanted me to have one or two more fights, so my goal, my plan and my desire is still the same, and that’s one fight at a time, so I was just grateful to be back in camp.”

The road back starts this Friday, when she takes on Lara, who rebounded from back-to-back losses with a first-round finish over Taylor Turner in August.

“I feel like she’s a little bit tallerm but that’s something that I’m used to,” Arteaga said of Lara. “But besides that, I feel like we’re well matched, and yeah, I’m ready for this fight, so I’m excited to go out there and perform.”

Bellator’s two weekend event take place at Neal S. Blaisdell Center, with Friday’s card airing on Paramount and streaming on DAZN.