Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Recap the most notable storylines to come out of a busy combat weekend that included UFC, two Bellator cards and a major boxing event.
What mattered most from a stacked weekend of combat sports that included Bellator 294 and Bellator 295 in Hawaii, UFC Fight Night 222 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas a big-time boxing match in “Sin City”? Here are a few post-fight musings …
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Typically respectful toward her opponents, Liz Carmouche was absolutely fed up with Bellator 294 opponent DeAnna Bennett.
HONOLULU – [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] touched gloves with [autotag]DeAnna Bennett[/autotag] moments prior to their Bellator 294 bout Friday, but she did so with a bad taste in her mouth.
“Once the bell rings, I’m not going to play the game of touching gloves and letting you get a crazy swing,” Carmouche told MMA Junkie at a post-fight news conference at Neal S. Blaisdell Center. “With someone I don’t trust for being a cheater, I’m not going to trust she’s (not) going to take advantage of that moment either.”
Those who have followed Carmouche (19-7 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) during the span of her lengthy career know she very seldom, if ever, is anything short of respectful toward her opponents. But when Bennett (13-8-1 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) missed weight for the second time in as many head-to-head matchups vs. Carmouche, it struck a nerve.
“If you have the energy to put on a face, if you have the energy to joke around and make light of the fact that you’re not making weight, you have the energy to stay in that sauna, work out, and make the weight,” Carmouche said. “So she was fine. It’s just her claim to fame in this sport is missing weight, not making weight. That shouldn’t be it. You’re a professional MMA fighter. You think you deserve to be the champion by missing weight? That’s your whole career? You don’t deserve to have the belt. Now, if she put on that performance having made weight? I would be saying something different. I’d give her props for what she did. But the reality is that she cheated yet again by missing weight, like I said she would before this fight.”
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Carmouche finished Bennett by submission, as was the outcome in their September 2020 meeting, too. This time, it was by fourth-round arm-triangle choke. According to the judges’ scorecards, Carmouche was down 30-27 on all judges’ scorecards through three rounds. Carmouche dug deep for the finish, motivated not only by Bennett’s success in the fight but the failures before it.
“If I outweigh somebody and I didn’t have to cut the weight, I would do pretty well on top, too,” Carmouche said. “So no, that wasn’t what I was banking on. I wasn’t banking on having to carry, into the fourth and fifth round of a championship fight. I wouldn’t to finish her off and make a huge statement and shut her up and get her out of this sport, so she can take her crude remarks and her lack of professionalism somewhere else.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 294.
Liz Carmouche is making her footprint on the Bellator record books after recording another title defense at Bellator 294.
The first half of Bellator’s doubleheader in Hawaii went down Friday with Bellator 294, which took place at Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu and saw a champion defend her title in the main event.
[autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] (19-7 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) recorded a second consecutive defense of her women’s flyweight title when she rallied from a 3-0 deficit on the scorecards to submit [autotag]DeAnna Bennett[/autotag] (13-8-1 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) with an arm-triangle choke in the fourth frame of their rematch.
For more on the numbers behind Carmouche’s win, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts form Bellator 294.
Check out these photos from the main event of Bellator 294, a women’s flyweight title bout between Liz Carmouche and DeAnna Bennett.
Check out these photos from[autotag] Liz Carmouche[/autotag]’s win against DeAnna Bennett at Bellator 294 in Honolulu. (Photos courtesy of Lucas Noonan, Bellator MMA)
Liz Carmouche was the only fighter in the Bellator 294 main event who could walk away with gold – and she did.
[autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] took a risk Friday but it paid off.
In the Bellator 294 main event at Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Carmouche (19-7 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) defeated [autotag]DeAnna Bennett[/autotag] (13-8-1 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) with an arm-triangle choke submission at 4:29 of Round 4.
Due to a weight miss by Bennett at Thursday’s official weigh-ins, the women’s flyweight contest was a one-way title bout, meaning a new champion could not be crowned. However, Carmouche elected to still put her title on the line. If Carmouche won, she retained her title; if Bennett won, the belt would be vacated.
Early, Carmouche served as her own worst enemy when an errant spinning wheel kick backfired. Carmouche spun off-balance as Bennett grabbed hold and landed on top on the ground.
In Round 2, Carmouche found success with her striking combinations, set up nicely by low calf kicks. Bennett took the fight to the canvas but Carmouche returned back up.
Round 3 was similar. Carmouche landed some good strikes before Bennett tied up her up against the fence and took the fight down. Bennett controlled Carmouche on the mat for the remainder of the round.
In Round 4, Carmouche spent the early stages defending a takedown from Bennett. A front choke neutralized Bennett’s attempted. Carmouche eventually worked her way into top control where she slowly worked her way to an arm-triangle submission. Bennett’s legs flailed with the tap.
😱 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗟𝗟@iamgirlrilla weathers the storm to submit @DeAnnaDBennett in Round 4️⃣.#Bellator294 | LIVE NOW | @SHOsports pic.twitter.com/RbmtEeTskA
— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) April 22, 2023
Bellator 294 wasn’t the first time Carmouche and Bennett competed against one another. They made their simultaneous Bellator debuts in September 2020 when Carmouche defeated Bennett by third-round submission. Bennett also missed weight for that bout.
The victory Friday extended Carmouche’s winning streak to five and marked her second successful title defense.
With the win, Carmouche defeats Bennett for the second time and remains undefeated in Bellator. The first UFC women’s title challenger in history, Carmouche signed with Bellator in December 2019. Three straight wins in the promotion earned her a title shot against Juliana Velasquez, who she defeated twice in back-to-back fights.
Bennett has a three-fight winning streak snapped with the loss. She entered the fight coming off of two wins against the same opponent, Justine Kish.
Up-to-the-minute Bellator 294 results include:
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 294.
Bellator champ Liz Carmouche thinks cardio will play a big factor in beating DeAnna Bennett again.
HONOLULU – [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] thinks cardio will play a big factor in her beating [autotag]DeAnna Bennett[/autotag] again.
Flyweight champion Carmouche (18-7 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) rematches Bennett (13-7-1 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) in Friday’s Bellator 294 main event at Neal S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.
Carmouche submitted Bennett in the third round at Bellator 246 in September 2020. The fight was each of their promotional debuts. Since then, Bennett has won three straight, but Carmouche doesn’t expect anything different from her. She also sees the extra two championship rounds playing in her favor.
“I think her best representation of herself is when she faced me the first time,” Carmouche told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a pre-fight news conference Wednesday. “In that fight she wasn’t able to do what she needed to. I think she wants to come out stronger than she did and hope to pressure me, and keep the foot on the gas.
“I don’t think she has the gas tank for five rounds. So in her mind, if she can come out early, if she can come out fast, if she can come out strong, she can hopefully go for a finish. But I prepared for that, I prepared to go 10 rounds, you name it. So there’s not a circumstance I see where she’s able to have done enough growth in her previous fight to prepare for this one.”
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Bennett missed weight big in her first fight against Carmouche, coming in 5.7 pounds over the non-title flyweight limit of 126. For their second meeting, Bennett failed to make weight again, this time weighing 126.2 on her final attempt to make championship weight.
When asked to comment on Bennett’s strength, Carmouche said it’s hard to gauge.
“There was such a significant weight difference,” Carmouche said. “Our fight was getting pulled. I had to really lobby to keep the fight. The commission wanted to step in and pull it because she was so far off weight. So I can’t tell if the strength came from the significant weight difference or that’s how actually strong she is. I won’t know until Friday night.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 294.
“I knew I would see her again. I knew she would be champion, so I felt like it would be for the title.”
HONOLULU – [autotag]DeAnna Bennett[/autotag] isn’t surprised the stars aligned for a rematch with [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag].
Carmouche (18-7 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) defends her title against Bennett (13-7-1 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) in Friday’s Bellator 294 headliner at Neal S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.
In what was each of their Bellator debuts, Carmouche submitted Bennett in September 2020. Carmouche later captured the Bellator flyweight title against Juliana Velasquez, and Bennett hasn’t lost since which set her up for the rematch – this time, with much larger stakes.
“You have to take each fight independently,” Bennett told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a pre-fight news conference Wednesday. “It’s been a couple years. I’m a different fighter. She’s a different fighter. I’m at a completely different camp now in Philly with Marquez MMA and joining teams for that. But you have to go back and look at the first fight and see what you did right, what she did right, what I did wrong.
“… I knew I would see her again. I knew she would be champion, so I felt like it would be for the title. So I hoped that when I brought myself back up to the spot where I could be in title contention, I hoped she’d still have the title at that point. I knew she was already going to be the champion because she’s such a great fighter. My hopes paid off because she’s still the champion and our rematch is for the title. I’m so incredibly excited for this. I can’t stop smiling just because the opportunity is finally here. I’m just happy.”
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According to BetMGM, Bennett is a sizable +360 underdog against Carmouche, who is the -500 favorite. But “The Ultimate Fighter 26” alum is paying no mind to the odds.
“Who was it, Rodney Dangerfield? ‘I don’t get no respect,'” Bennett said. “I’m not even fazed by it. I don’t expect anyone to know who I am. My manager and everybody are like, ‘You need to do more self-promotion’… and of course I want to do that, but my focus has been training, My focus has been fighting and proving myself in the cage.”
Bennett continued, “I know what I did in that fight, and I proved a little bit to myself. People take it at face value because if they didn’t see the fight, then they just see the result of it, it’s a loss on my record. Cool. And if they want to think that and if they want the betting records to be that, cool. I’ll make some people some money when they bet on me.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 294.
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Check out which UFC veterans are in MMA and boxing action across the globe this weekend.
This week, the UFC is back in Las Vegas at the UFC Apex for a heavyweight showdown. In the main event, [autotag]Sergei Pavlovich[/autotag] takes on [autotag]Curtis Blaydes[/autotag] in a fight scheduled for five rounds.
Elsewhere, many other MMA and boxing events are taking place that feature a number of familiar names that have competed under the UFC banner.
This weekend, there are a total of 18 veterans of the global MMA leader competing in MMA and boxing this week from April 21-23.
Check out the names and details about their bouts below.
Upcoming event information from Tapology.
Champion Liz Carmouche and DeAnna Bennett will run it back, this time with Bellator gold on the line.
Bellator is returning to Hawaii with two title fights.
Kicking things off will be flyweight champion [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] defending her belt against [autotag]DeAnna Bennett[/autotag] in the Bellator 294 headliner on April 21 at Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, the first event of a two-night doubleheader.
A person with knowledge of the matchup confirmed the booking to MMA Junkie but asked to remain anonymous because the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. KHON2 was first to report the news.
Carmouche (18-7 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) and Bennett (13-7-1 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) already fought in September 2020, when Carmouche submitted Bennett in what was both of their Bellator debuts. The former two-time UFC title challenger went on to win another four fights in a row before earning a title shot against then-champion Juliana Velasquez at Bellator 278. Carmouche TKO’d Velasquez to capture the belt and finished her once again when they rematched at Bellator 289.
Bennett hasn’t lost since dropping her promotional debut to Carmouche. “The Ultimate Fighter 26” alum has won three fights in a row, including back-to-back decisions over Justine Kish.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 294.
One women’s flyweight bout scheduled for Bellator 274 has been exchanged for another.
Bellator 274 has lost a fight and gained another.
The main card bout between [autotag]Veta Arteaga[/autotag] and [autotag]Keri Taylor-Melendez[/autotag] is off for undisclosed reasons, a promotion official recently informed MMA Junkie. However, in its place, a flyweight bout between former UFC fighters [autotag]DeAnna Bennett[/autotag] and [autotag]Justine Kish[/autotag] has been added.
Bellator 274 takes place Feb. 19 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card airs on Showtime after prelims on MMA Junkie.
At Bellator 266 in September, Bennett (11-7-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) rebounded from back-to-back losses when she defeated Alejandra Lara by a largely one-sided unanimous decision in front of her hometown crowd in San Jose, Calif. The win was her first Bellator victory, but Bennett missed weight by 3.2 pounds ahead of the bout.
Kish (7-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) enters Bellator on the heels of a seven-fight UFC tenure during which she went 3-4. She currently is on a two-fight losing skid. Her notable career victories include names like Randa Markos, Ashley Yoder and Lucie Pudilova.
With the changes, the Bellator 274 lineup includes:
MAIN CARD (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET)
PRELIMINARY CARD (MMA Junkie, 6 p.m. ET)
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