UNCASVILLE, Conn. – After her first successful defense of the women’s flyweight title this past Friday at Bellator 289, Liz Carmouche had a number in mind.
That number was 135, as in a Bellator women’s bantamweight division, which doesn’t currently exist. Carmouche fought at bantamweight in the UFC and met Ronda Rousey in that promotion’s inaugural women’s bantamweight title fight nearly 10 years ago.
After Carmouche (18-7 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) beat former champion Juliana Velasquez (12-2 MMA, 7-2 BMMA) in a rematch, she made her pitch for Bellator to open a women’s bantamweight division. Such a move would require an inaugural title fight – and she wants to move 10 pounds north to be in that proposed bout against her teammate, former women’s flyweight champ Ilima-Lei Macfarlane.
Bellator president Scott Coker told MMA Junkie the promotion is considering opening up a women’s bantamweight division.
“We’ve had conversations, not with (Carmouche), but internally with our fight team about the possibility of opening up a 135 division,” Coker said. “So there’s dialogue. It’s not guaranteed, but there’s dialogue and we haven’t made a decision yet.”
Coker seemed to think highly enough of Carmouche’s second-round submission of Velasquez that if 135 became a thing, giving Carmouche a shot to be a dual titleholder would be something he’d be amenable to.
“(Friday) was something Liz felt she had to prove herself, and she did it,” Coker said. “That was a very impressive victory. Juliana Velasquez is a great fighter. I think (Carmouche) put her will on her and kept taking her down and pressing her and working her and then eventually working that submission, which to me came out of nowhere.”
Bellator currently has women’s divisions at flyweight and featherweight. Coker said not having bantamweight was just a matter of being better equipped from a roster standpoint to fill out women’s fighters at 125 and 145.
“When you think about Bellator and how many TV dates there are and how many TV slots there are, there are only so many slots,” Coker said. “So we have nine divisions. We felt really good about our nine divisions and felt we could be really strong at ’45 and ’25, so those are the divisions we went with. But we might open it up – we’ll see.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 289.
