Jessica Aguilar faces the legendary Megumi Fujii at tomorrow night's Bellator 69. The two are pretty much universally acknowledged to be the #2 and #1 115 pound women's mixed martial artists in the world but there's no belt on the line.
Both fighters lost very debatable decisions to Zoila Gurgel in the Bellator season 3 women's 115lb tournament in 2010.
Aguilar spoke to Sports Illustrated's Loretta Hunt and the conversation focused more on Aguilar's personal life than the upcoming bout. Including this acknowledgement of her bi-sexuality:
"I don't put it in any titles," said Aguilar, "but I'd say when I've found the right person -- whether it's a man or a woman -- I'd be happy."
...
"It's always been something I had to be very conservative about and it's something I've had to get more comfortable talking about," she said. "If somebody doesn't agree with my choices, with all due respect, I just don't feed into it because that's negative energy. I'm sorry -- this is who I am."
Aguilar is not the first professional female MMA fighter to come out as gay or bisexual -- Tonya Evinger, Liz Carmouche and Michelle Ould immediately come to mind and I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting -- but it's interesting that there has yet to be an openly gay male professional fighter at the highest levels of the sport.