SAN DIEGO – The future may be a little murky for Bellator as a promotion right now, but that doesn’t have to transfer to all of its fighters.
Liz Carmouche, who quickly has become one of Bellator’s most dominant champions with four finishes in four title fights in less than 18 months, seems to have a pretty clear vision of what she’d like her near-term future to be.
Carmouche (20-7 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) on Saturday put away her good friend, former teammate and longtime training partner, and protege, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (13-3 MMA, 12-3 BMMA), with a fifth-round TKO. Carmouche defended the women’s flyweight title at Bellator 300 in San Diego, the home base for her and Macfarlane for years. Macfarlane was ineligible to recapture the belt she held for years because she missed weight.
The fight no doubt was more emotionally draining for Carmouche than normal, given her close friendship with Macfarlane. But with that hurdle cleared, Carmouche wants to go to the other side of the world for her next one.
“I’m going to take some time with my family (first),” Carmouche said after Bellator 300. “Every time that I’m in fight camp, I go away to the East coast for two months to be away and to just concentrate on the fight for two to three months. I haven’t seen my son. I haven’t seen my wife. They’ve been going through a lot, so I want to spend some time with them – hopefully enjoy the holidays because I don’t usually get to do that.
“And then next year, I’d like to start ramping it up and I’d love to face Kana Watanabe in Japan. It’s my dream, it’s my bucket list – to fight back home. I want to go home.”
Carmouche, 39, was born in Louisiana, but grew up on a military base in Okinawa, Japan.
Carmouche beat Watanabe in June 2021 in just 35 seconds. After that, she got a shot at Juliana Velasquez and won the belt. She defended it eight months later in a rematch, then beat DeAnna Bennett earlier this year in Hawaii. Coincidentally, in that fight, Bennett, like Macfarlane on Saturday, could not win the title after she missed weight – but Carmouche could have lost it to vacancy in both fights.
Bellator has done shows in Japan with Rizin, so that certainly could be something attainable – if Bellator is around to make it happen. Carmouche, like virtually everyone in the sport, has heard the rumors of an impending Bellator sale or merger with the PFL – or the possibility that the promotion even could just close up shop if parent company Paramount doesn’t want to be in the combat sports business any longer. (Paramount is shuttering its Showtime Boxing brand, as well.)
“I’m always open for change,” Carmouche said. “Having been in this game for so long and been a part of so many purchases and changes, I’m just grateful that I’m still living this life and enjoying every moment. If there’s a run to a new banner and it happens to be a PFL that happens to do the buyout, great.
“My biggest hope is that they open up a 135 division, whether that’s here in Bellator or in another organization. That’s my dream is to be able to hold a belt in the 135 division now in addition to 125.”
Check out Carmouche’s full interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 300.
