Sherdog Prospect Watch: Michelle Montague

#BellatorDublin Official Weigh In Result ⚖️

Michelle Montague - 143.7lbs ✅
Karolina Sobek - 145.9lbs ✅

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Michelle Montague focuses on what she can control.

The undefeated New Zealand native will suit up for the first time in nearly a year when she makes her Bellator MMA debut opposite Karolina Sobek as part of the Bellator Champions Series Dublin undercard this Saturday at 3Arena in Dublin. Montague improved to 4-0 when she dispatched Abigail Montes with a rear-naked choke at a Professional Fighters League event in August. She has remained on the sidelines ever since, waiting for all the pieces from the PFL’s acquisition of Bellator to fall into place.

“It’s been frustrating waiting 10 months to get an opponent when you know there are girls that are also waiting to get an opponent,” Montague told Sherdog.com. “Perhaps it’s just a matter of getting all the cards full [and] trying to give everyone a fight. It’s probably a lot of moving parts, so I can appreciate that. As much as I feel that way, there’s probably another hundred people that feel the same way who are trying to get organized. It just is what it is. That’s just part of the game. You can’t sit there getting pissed off about it. You’ve got to kind of expect that.”

Montague finally has a target in the crosshairs. Sobek enters the cage on the heels of back-to-back losses to Evelyn Martins and Aspen Ladd, and the 24-year-old Marcin Mencel protégé has endured an even longer layoff than her counterpart: She last fought under the PFL banner on June 16, 2023, when she submitted to a second-round armbar from Ladd. Sobek has yet to post a victory outside the European regional scene.

“I expect to finish the girl, and I know she enjoys a good grapple,” Montague said. “I know that she likes to come forward and do some throws and throw a few jabs and overhands. It’ll be a pretty fun fight. We’re pretty well-matched. I’m not going in there expecting to be the bigger girl physically. I just know to play my cards smartly.”

Montague hangs her hat at the star-studded American Top Team camp in Coconut Creek, Florida, more than 8,000 miles from her hometown. Dakota Ditcheva and Yana Santos played significant roles in her preparation, as did Beatriz Mesquita—arguably the best female jiu-jitsu player in the world.

“We’ve had a good variety of partners that show a bunch of different things and put you in good and bad positions across the board,” Montague said. “It’s been a pretty cool camp in terms of the variety.”

The 27-year-old Montague has momentum on her side despite the recent stretch of inactivity. She has finished all four of her opponents with rear-naked chokes, three of them inside two rounds. Though Montague meets Sobek as the favorite on paper, she has learned to take nothing for granted in a sport known for its volatility.

“You just got to take it as it comes,” she said. “You’ve got to put on a good fight, show that the crowd is excited by you and have the organizer excited by you. That’s all you can control at this point.”