Bellator 249: The best finishes featuring Cris Cyborg and Patricky 'Pitbull' Freire

Cris Cyborg steps back into the Bellator cage in the early hours of Friday morning when she defends her featherweight title for the first time against Arlene Blencowe.

Only the second Bellator women's featherweight champion in the company's history, Cyborg (22-2, 1 NC) is coming off a dominant performance over Julia Budd in January to win the 145-pound world title. Already an MMA legend, the Brazilian-born fighter made history by becoming a world champion in her fourth major promotion, previously holding belts in both the UFC and Strikeforce.

With wins in six of her last seven fights, Blencowe (13-7) has put herself in position to challenge for the women's featherweight title. Tied for the most knockouts in Bellator women's featherweight history, the Australian aims to claim sole possession of that record, as she takes on her toughest challenge to date.

In the co-main event, the self-proclaimed 'King of Bellator KOs' Patricky 'Pitbull' Freire (23-9) will be aiming for another knockout victory when he takes on Jaleel Willis (13-2). With nine victories in way of knockout in his Bellator career, one more would see him leapfrog Douglas Lima and Michael 'Venom' Page and stand at the top of the list for most KOs in the promotion's history.

Also on the card we see the return of Ricky Bandejas (13-4) who will be looking to bounce back from his disappointing loss to Sergio Pettis back in July, he takes on Leandro Higo (19-5) and Saad Awad (23-13) faces Mandel Nallo (7-1) in a lightweight contest.

Click the video above to check out what you can expect in the early hours of Friday morning!

Bellator 249 is live at 3am (BST) this Friday on Sky Sports Mix with Cris Cyborg vs Arlene Blencowe and Patricky 'Pitbull' Freire vs Jaleel Willis.