Another fantastic match has been added to the main card of Polaris 17, and this will be the second to feature a championship belt on the line. However, nobody will be defending a belt they’ve already earned as this will mark the very first time that the Women’s Openweight Championship will be up for grabs. The match in question sees California native Kendall Reusing facing off with Finland’s own Venla Luukkonen, both of whom have established themselves as among the very best competitors on the planet at the heavier weightclasses.
Reusing in particular has had a huge amount of success on the competition circuit, closing out the finals of the IBJJF world championship in both her weight and the absolute division with her teammate Jessica Flowers in her very first year as a black belt in 2019. Having spent time training with the USA national wrestling team, Reusing has phenomenal standing grappling and is a force to be reckoned with from top position. Most recently, she came home with a gold medal at the IBJJF pan-ams earlier this year.
Luukkonen will not be an easy match for Reusing however as she has a significant edge in experience, having competed at the highest levels of the sport since 2014. She was promoted to black belt by Pedro Duarte and was already a big name in the sport after winning the IBJJF world championships as a brown belt. She followed this up with immediately becoming the first Finnish native to win an IBJJF world championship at black belt the very same year she was promoted.
The match between the two will no doubt be action-packed from start to finish as both women excel in virtually all areas of the sport.
