ONTARIO, Calif. – Local professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter Chelsea Faulder, of Piqua, lost a close, but unanimous, five-round decision in her attempt to capture the King of the Cage World Women’s Strawweight championship near Los Angeles Saturday night.

A three-judge panel scored the fight in favor of Cynthia “Sin” Arceo of El Paso, Texas, who retained the title. Faulder was ranked as a No. 2 contender in the division for fighters in the 106-115 pounds range.

Throughout the fight, Faulder seemed the more aggressive combatant preferring a closer body-to-body style of fighting. Her opponent preferred a more traditional boxing style of stance using karate kicks at times.

Faulder’s manager, and husband, Johnny Connor, told the Sidney Daily News after the fight that Chelsea was never really hurt during the bout, and had Arceo in the “danger zone” position three times early on being “close to finishing her off”.

“Chelsea went out to fight her fight trying to take her down, but Sin was able to keep her at a distance,” Connor said. “Chelsea is feeling good. She has some bumps and bruises, but she is feeling good about the fight.”

Connor said fight promoters were impressed with her effort and plan on booking future bouts for Faulder. She will return to training in a couple of weeks.

A crowd estimated at 9,000 packed the Citizens Business Bank Arena, according to online fight coverage video posted on Facebook. The event was titled “Energetic Pursuit” and listed the Faulder bout as one of the co-main events.

Faulder’s daughter, six-year-old Cheyenne, was among the manager, trainer and cornermen, who accompanied her mother to the ring. Faulder entered the ring first wearing black shorts and black T-shirt with white lettering.

From the start, Faulder used double-leg takedowns to gain the upper hand throughout. Although she was controlling her opponent on the mat, Faulder was not able to neutralize Arceo long enough to administer disabling blows for a knockout win.

Connor said the referee warned Arceo twice following the first two rounds to “defend yourself” or the bout would be stopped. Connor explained such action is for safety reasons if a fighter is not protecting themselves.

Faulder far outdistanced her foe in having the upper hand when fighting on the mat and into the side of the cage. Arceo did not score a single takedown during the bout.

However, it may have been a more aggressive Arceo with her boxing style approach in the fifth, and final, five-minute round that gave her the final score edge.

“In MMA, they score on effective aggressiveness, so I’m not sure how they scored the fight. But, Sin is a great lady, and the fight was between the top two best fighters out there. So, it was a great night,” said Connor.

Faulder, who started at age 18 and compiled an impressive 7-1 won-loss record as an amateur, climbed quickly to the top of the rankings after only two professional fights.

In August 2017, she lost by disqualification to Kyna “The Sensation” Sisson of Michigan in Wyandotte, Michigan. On Nov. 10, she took a first round, arm bar submission victory over Heather Denny of Brighton, Colorado, in Carlton, Minnesota.

Faulder is a 2009 Jackson Center High School graduate is now living in Piqua. The five-foot blond trained up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, at her husband’s Fightopia MMA facility in Piqua, for the title match.

The match will be shown on a tape-delay basis on MavTV, which is available on two local TV outlets. However, no replay date has been scheduled, according to information on the MavTV website.

Once a time slot is selected, the event will be shown on Spectrum Cable (Channel 1340) and DirecTV (Channel 214).