Tag: Ilima-Lei Macfarlane

Bellator women’s flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane has no problem facing Liz Carmouche.

Macfarlane successfully defended her title at Bellator Hawaii this past weekend when she outpointed Kate Jackson in the headliner. Speaking to media after the fight, the Hawaiian revealed she had no qualms about potentially facing new Bellator signing Carmouche if the promotion kicked off a flyweight grand prix.

That, despite the fact that they are friends and teammates:

“We are totally prepared to fight each other,” Macfarlane told MMA Junkie. “Obviously we’d want to be on the opposite sides of the brackets, but yeah, I am so down for a tournament.

“In fact, when I heard that Scott announced it, I was like, ‘OK, great, I don’t have to call it out on the mic.’”

It’s a sentiment that is shared by Carmouche herself.

However, there are some things that would need to be worked out if they did end up facing each other in the future.

“The only thing that we have to figure out – and we’ve already talked about this with our coaches – because Liz and I have been with Manolo and Bill since the beginning, and so they’re like, ‘What are we going to do?’” Macfarlane added. “And we’re like, ‘OK, why don’t you guys just be in the audience, and we’ll just have our teammates corner us or something?’”

What do you make of Macfarlane’s comments?

The post Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, Liz Carmouche ‘Totally Prepared To Fight Each Other’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Liz Carmouche is now a member of the Bellator MMA roster.

Carmouche will likely join the promotion’s 125-pound division, which is looking very good at the moment. Of course, should Carmouche dominate her way to the top of the mountain and earn herself a title opportunity, she’d be fighting her friend and teammate Ilima-lei Macfarlane. Speaking to MMA Junkie at a Bellator 236 media scrum, Carmouche explained why she thinks a potential fight with Macfarlane won’t be a problem.

“We’ve always had that sneaking suspicion that this moment could happen,” Carmouche said. “We always knew in our hearts that eventually we’re going to be fighting each other for the belt. We already knew that, and we’ve been in talks about that for a long time. I think to other people it comes as a surprise instead of a reality, but it’s just a matter of when it was going to come to fruition.

“And we’ve already competed side-by-side in tournaments, so we’ve always had that same mentality. We’re going to throw down. It’s you and me, (and) we are going to go harder than anybody else and try to snap each other’s limbs off, choke each other out. And if it’s fighting, we’re going to hit each other harder.

“There have been days when we go to train with each other and were like, ‘I’m sorry I have to do this to you, but you have to be ready for your fight.’ We don’t want to, but you hit them as hard as you can, so fighting wouldn’t be any different.”

Macfarlane comes off a successful title defense over the weekend, dominating opponent Kate Jackson for a unanimous decision win in the Bellator 236 main event. It will be interesting to see if a fight with Carmouche materializes in 2020.

What do you think about a potential matchup between Macfarlane and Carmouche?

The post Liz Carmouche Has No Problem Fighting Friend, Teammate & Bellator Champ Ilima-lei Macfarlane appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.