Irina Alekseeva is an up and coming Russian Flyweight MMA fighter who has earned the affectionate nickname of the “Russian Ronda” as a direct result of her fighting style and martial arts background. Alekseeva is an experienced Judoka, earning a silver medal at the Russian National Judo Championships three years in a row (2013-15) and a successful Sambo practitioner as well. She has won both the Russian and European Sambo Championships, and has also been crowned Russian National hand-to-hand combat Champion four different times. Despite her nickname and the frequent comparisons, she is nowhere near as one-dimensional as Ronda Rousey was and already possesses more experience striking than she ever did.
Irina Alekseeva started her MMA career at the beginning of 2019 and won her first three professional fights in dominating fashion by securing two finishes by TKO and Submission, and one decision. She was most recently seen on the losing end of a decision at ProFC 66 when she took on Belarusian MMA veteran Liliya Kazak, but has gone back to the drawing board in 2020 to sharpen her skills. She hasn’t been able to compete since that loss in December 2019, partially as a result of the global pandemic that either cancelled events or flat-out destroyed smaller promotions altogether.
Assuming she returns to winning form in her first few fights in the Bellator cage, she could make an interesting challenger for the promotion’s recently crowned Flyweight World Champion Juliana Velasquez. As a fellow high-level Judoka with a solid striking game, it would be interesting to see how a match between the two plays out. This should be a little way down the road however, as Alekseeva has only just signed the contract to compete for Bellator, recently announced by SuckerPunch Entertainment on their official Instagram account.
