Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, Liz Carmouche ‘Totally Prepared To Fight Each Other’

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 […]

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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?

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Liz Carmouche Has No Problem Fighting Friend, Teammate & Bellator Champ Ilima-lei Macfarlane

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. […]

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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.

Newly Signed Bellator Fighter Liz Carmouche Happy To Move On From UFC’s ‘PR Nightmare’

Liz Carmouche is glad that she can put the circumstances surrounding her UFC release behind her. Carmouche wasn’t surprised to be given her walking papers from the UFC despite coming off a flyweight title fight. What did throw “Girl-Rilla&#…

Liz Carmouche is glad that she can put the circumstances surrounding her UFC release behind her. Carmouche wasn’t surprised to be given her walking papers from the UFC despite coming off a flyweight title fight. What did throw “Girl-Rilla” off was the way in which she was notified of her release. Carmouche was brought out […]

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Bellator Announces Liz Carmouche Signing

It didn’t take long for Liz Carmouche to find a new home. Fight fans were surprised to hear the news of Carmouche’s UFC release. “Girl-Rilla” competed against Ronda Rousey in the first-ever women’s bout in UFC history. She…

It didn’t take long for Liz Carmouche to find a new home. Fight fans were surprised to hear the news of Carmouche’s UFC release. “Girl-Rilla” competed against Ronda Rousey in the first-ever women’s bout in UFC history. She went 4-2 in her last six outings and is coming off a women’s flyweight title bout against […]

The post Bellator Announces Liz Carmouche Signing appeared first on MMA News.

Liz Carmouche Officially Signs With Bellator MMA

Liz Carmouche has found herself a new home. After being unexpectedly released by the UFC earlier this month, MMA Junkie reports Carmouche has inked an exclusive contract with Bellator MMA. No date or opponent has been announced for Carmouche’s debut as of this writing. However, Bellator president Scott Coker has teased that a women’s flyweight […]

The post Liz Carmouche Officially Signs With Bellator MMA appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Liz Carmouche has found herself a new home. After being unexpectedly released by the UFC earlier this month, MMA Junkie reports Carmouche has inked an exclusive contract with Bellator MMA.

No date or opponent has been announced for Carmouche’s debut as of this writing. However, Bellator president Scott Coker has teased that a women’s flyweight tournament could be in the works for 2020, so it’s possible Carmouche’s first fight could be in the opening round of the tournament.

Carmouche, who competed for the UFC at 125 and 135 pounds, fought inside the Octagon for nearly seven years, facing Ronda Rousey in the first-ever women’s fight in UFC history. She was released while actually doing promotional work for the Las Vegas-based mixed martial arts (MMA) organization in Washington D.C.

In a subsequent interview, Carmouche noted that she was released because she kept beating the UFC’s young prospects.

“Since I’ve been with the organization, I had a lot of difficulty getting fights. … It’s because it seems like all the opponents I’ve been offered have turned down all the fights,” she explained. “… Constantly we’re just told everyone is saying no. And the reason they [UFC] gave is they’re really trying to build up the division and every female they’ve brought into the 125 pound division, I’ve been able to beat them.

“So it’s not really giving them the opportunity to build up the division the way they wanted to. So unfortunately, for the well-being of the division, they had to cut me to give me an opportunity to go elsewhere and get the fights I need.”

What do you think about Carmouche now signing with Bellator MMA?

The post Liz Carmouche Officially Signs With Bellator MMA appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Liz Carmouche and Ilima-Lei Macfarlane Express Interest in Potential Bout

Free agent and former UFC mainstay Liz Carmouche and the Bellator flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane fully agree that Carmouche would fit in well with Bellator and that a matchup between the two would make sense. After being released from the UFC …

Free agent and former UFC mainstay Liz Carmouche and the Bellator flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane fully agree that Carmouche would fit in well with Bellator and that a matchup between the two would make sense. After being released from the UFC last week, Liz Carmouche naturally began considering what lies in her MMA future. One […]

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