“I would like it to be soon” - Lea Bivins aiming to fight the best in the ONE women’s atomweight ranks 

One of the most exciting prospects who'll feature in an atomweight bout this week is American fighter Lea Bivins. Although she’s yet to step inside the circle, Bivins is already talking about fighting the best women in the atomweight rankings.

Lea ‘First Moon’ Bivins has a fight lined up at ONE on Prime Video 3 after her initial bout at ONE 159 fell through due to her opponent missing weight. Now, she faces an experienced MMA fighter from the Netherlands, Noelle Grandjean, who’ll also be making her first appearance on the global stage.

Expecting a victory in her first MMA bout, Bivins is also confident she’s destined for bigger things. The Californian set up a time frame regarding when she expects to fight the top contenders in her division.

She told Tom Taylor from SCMP MMA:

“Before I end up fighting those top contenders in my division, I would like to get a few more fights under my belt. Obviously, I’m making my pro debut. I would like it to be about a year-and-a-half to get my feet wet in the water, but I would like it to be soon. If it was offered sooner than that, I would just go out there and test myself.”

Check out Bivins' interview below:

Not much is known about Lea Bivins’ fighting style since there’s not a lot of footage to look at. However, on paper, she’s a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Jamie Harris and is a state wrestling champion.

What’s intriguing about her is that she boasts her striking and MMA is just as good as her grappling and wrestling. From the little footage we’ve seen, ‘First Moon’ is tall and fast on her feet, which could present a problem to her Dutch opponent who is significantly smaller than her.

So, it will be interesting to see where Bivins takes the fight. Will she go strike-for-strike with a Tiger Muay Thai fighter, or will she take her to the ground? At the moment, both options look really good for her.

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Lea Bivins calls Zeba Bano a “loser” for pulling out of their fight last minute

As mentioned before, Lea Bivins was supposed to fight at ONE 159 in July. Her scheduled opponent was Zeba ‘Fighting Queen’ Bano.

The reason Bano gave for her withdrawal was complications in passing the weight and hydration tests. Bivins, however, didn’t believe that for a second.

After the fight was canceled, she called out the Indian fighter on her Instagram page the next day with the following caption:

“Zeba Bano decided on fight day to pull out last minute and not fight me on the ONE Championship 159 card. I could see last night [at the weigh-ins] she was mentally not ready for this fight as well as physically.”

Lea Bivins didn’t hide her frustration as she followed up with a second post targeting her rival:

“I could see the fear and loser vibes in your face last night.”