Janay Harding victorious at Bellator 207

Australian featherweight Janay Harding picked up her first win the the Bellator promotion on Friday night, opening up a deep cut on the forehead of Ireland’s Sinead Kavanagh, which forced the clash to be stopped by the doctor in between rounds one and two.

MMA Mania.com has play-by-play of the fight.

Round 1: Kavanagh pushes Harding toward the outside circle quickly and is letting her hands go. Harding weathers the storm and circles to her right. Harding is getting her hands up to block a lock of the shots and is throwing some nice elbows. In fact she’s opened up a cut on Kavanagh’s face, who has to keep wiping the blood out of her eyes. Now Harding is the aggressor as the blood continues to pour over Kavanagh’s right eye. Kavanagh looks to clinch and drop levels. Harding breaks free at 3:28 with a knee on the exit. Left hand flush for Harding. Kavanagh lands a clean shot as Harding went for a spin kick. Crisp right hand by Kavanagh. Kavanagh with a left. That’s a super close first round but it’s not going to a second — the cut man can’t stem the flow of blood and the doctor is calling it off.

With the victory over the SBG trained fighter, Harding (4-3) bounces back from her decision loss to Amber Leibrock earlier this year in her Bellator debut.

Bellator 207 took place at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. In the main event, Ryan Bader put in an impressive performance against Matt Mitrione to book a spot in the promotion’s heavyweight Grand Prix final.

Full Results:

• Ryan Bader def. Matt Mitrione via Decision (Unanimous)
• Sergei Kharitonov def. Roy Nelson via KO, Rd 1, 4:59
• Lorenz Larkin def. Ion Pascu via Decision (Unanimous)
• Corey Browning def. Kevin Ferguson Jr. via TKO, Rd 2, 2:08
• Mandel Nallo def. Carrington Banks via KO, Rd 2, 0:57
• Sarah Click def. Kristi Lopez via Decision (Unanimous)
• Andre Fialho def. Javier Torres via Decision (Majority)
• Mike Kimbel def. Alex Potts via KO, Rd 1, 0:06
• Kemran Lachinov def. Sean Lally via Decision (Unanimous)
• Pat Casey def. Kastriot Xhema via Decision (Unanimous)
• Janay Harding (Australia) def. Sinead Kavanagh via TKO (Doctor), Rd 1, 5:00
• Vinicius de Jesus def. Tim Caron via Decision (Unanimous)
• Alexandra Ballou def. Lisa Blaine via TKO, Rd 3, 3:28

Arlene Blencowe stops Amber Leibrock at Bellator 206