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Check out these photos from Taila Santos vs. Liz Carmouche at 2024 PFL Playoffs 1 in Nashville, Tenn.
Check out these photos from [autotag]Taila Santos[/autotag]’ unanimous decision victory over Liz Carmouche in their women’s flyweight semifinal bout at 2024 PFL Playoffs 1, which took place at Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. (Photos by Cooper Neill, PFL MMA)
Check out the full 2024 PFL Playoffs 1 weigh-in results, which includes Liz Carmouche missing weight for the first time in her career.
The PFL playoffs get underway Friday, and a few fighters missed weight at the official weigh-ins for 2024 PFL Playoffs 1.
Friday’s event (ESPN/ESPN+), which takes place at Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., features heavyweight and women’s flyweight playoff bouts on the main card.
In the main event, No. 1 seed [autotag]Denis Goltsov[/autotag] (34-8) takes on [autotag]Tim Johnson[/autotag] (18-9). The co-main event features a women’s flyweight bout between undefeated No. 1 seed [autotag]Dakota Ditcheva[/autotag] (12-0) and [autotag]Jena Bishop[/autotag] (7-1).
The lone fighter to come in heavy at the official weigh-ins was [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] (22-7), who missed weight for the first time in her career, weighing in at 127 pounds. For the miss, she will be deducted one point on the scorecards in her bout against fellow UFC vet Taila Santos, and will be fined 20 percent of her purse.
The one-point deduction will only be for league advancement purposes, and will not affect the official commission result, per PFL officials.
Also, three other prelim fighters came in heavy: Sergio Cossio, Jaleel Willis and Anthony Ivy.
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The full 2024 PFL Playoffs 1 official weigh-in results include:
MAIN CARD (ESPN/ESPN+, 9 p.m. ET)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)
*Carmouche missed the 125-pound flyweight limit. She will receive a 1-point deduction on the scorecards should her fight against Santos go to a decision. Carmouche also forfeits 20 percent of her show purse to Santos.
**Cossio missed the 155-pound lightweight limit. He forfeits 20 percent of his show purse to Sanders.
***Willis and Ivy both missed the 170-pound welterweight limit.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for 2024 PFL Playoffs 1.
Liz Carmouche went above and beyond to be in the field anyway, so she wasn’t about to start resting on her laurels against Kana Watanabe.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. – [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] went a little above and beyond to be in the field anyway, so she wasn’t about to start resting on her laurels against Kana Watanabe.
Carmouche (22-7), Bellator’s women’s flyweight champion, submitted Watanabe (13-3-1) with just seven seconds left in their fight at PFL 4 this past Thursday at Mohegan Sun Arena. With just 3 points from her opening fight of the season, Carmouche knew the difference between a 4-point finish in the third round and a 3-point decision could be the difference between fighting for $1 million and a title in August and November, or sitting home.
“Initially, before she stood up, I felt like when she brought her hand under that she actually tapped, but I wasn’t sure if it was her trying to grab her own arm or an actual tap,” Carmouche said of her armbar finish. “I knew the ref didn’t pull me off, so I was like, ‘Whatever I have to do, I’ve got to get this arm. I’ve got to take it home with me.’ That’s all I know.
“I’ve lost so many decisions (thinking I won on) the points card, I won every element of fighting, and it still went to the other opponent. So no way was I walking out of there thinking that I won – I just knew that I had to finish that fight. And even just for my advancement, I knew how important it was to secure an actual finish.”
Had Carmouche not gotten Watanabe to tap and gone to the scorecards and lost a decision, she’d have missed the postseason. And even a mere decision win instead of the finish would have drastically reshaped the women’s flyweight playoff field.
Her 4 points for the finish meant Carmouche had 7 for the season, good for the No. 3 spot. That left Jena Bishop with 6 at No. 4 and set to take on top seed Dakota Ditcheva in the semifinals. Carmouche is matched up with No. 2 Taila Santos.
But a decision win would have meant the potential for her to be No. 4, leaving Ditcheva as her semifinal opponent instead of Santos. Ditcheva was a 40-1 favorite in her win over Chelsea Hackett to secure the top spot.
Early against Watanabe, the fight was on the canvas enough that Carmouche may have figured she’d be in for a 3-point grind.
“I always find a way,” Carmouche said. “She came out and I was like, ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting her to shoot.’ I expected her to immediately clinch – I thought for sure that’s what she’s going for. The shot was not what I expected. I was definitely down there like, ‘Well, we weren’t really working on this.’ I’m spending way too much time thinking about ‘Wow, this is not where we’re supposed to be’ and I’m like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get your head back in this. You’ve got to do this. You came here to finish this fight and to advance in the playoffs the right way. Let’s do this. We’re not just going to be an alternate fight. We’re going there to get this belt. So come out and find a way to finish it.'”
Check out Carmouche’s full post-fight interview above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for PFL 2024, Week 4.
Check out these photos from Liz Carmouche vs. Kana Watanabe at 2024 PFL 4 in Uncasville, Conn.
Check out these photos from [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag]’s win over Kana Watanabe at 2024 PFL 4 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. (Photos by Cooper Neill, PFL MMA)
Former UFC title challenger Liz Carmouche has arguably never looked better.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Over 13 years into her professional career, [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] might be hitting new highs with nine straight wins.
At 2024 PFL 4 on Thursday, Carmouche (22-7) submitted [autotag]Kana Watanabe[/autotag] (13-3-1) with eight seconds left in the fight to earn four points and clinch her spot in the women’s flyweight playoffs. The stoppage came at 4:52 of Round 3. The fight took place at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Carmouche was on the bottom, in guard, when she threw up a lightning-fast submission attempt and locked it in. The tap came mere seconds later.
GIRL-RILLA!!!! LIZ CARMOUCHE IS GOING TO NASHVILLE FOR THE #PFLPLAYOFFS!#PFLRegularSeason LIVE NOW
🇺🇸 ESPN & ESPN+
🌎 https://t.co/jPNvomCxHI pic.twitter.com/q5ZUnJflwW— PFL (@PFLMMA) June 14, 2024
The fight was a rematch of a June 2021 bout in Bellator that Carmouche also won. That one was by 35-second standing TKO.
The up-to-the-minute 2024 PFL 4 results include:
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for 2024 PFL 4.
Check out these photos from Liz Carmouche’s victory over Juliana Velasquez at 2024 PFL 1 in San Antonio.
Check out these photos from [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag]’s decision victory over Juliana Velasquez in their third meeting, which took place at 2024 PFL 1 at Boeing Center in San Antonio. (Photos by Cooper Neill, PFL MMA)
Watch the fighters step on the scale and their faceoffs at the 2024 PFL 1 ceremonial weigh-ins in San Antonio.
The 2024 PFL 1 ceremonial weigh-ins take place Wednesday, and you can watch a live stream of the festivities right here on MMA Junkie.
PFL 1, which takes place Saturday at Boeing Center in San Antonio, features heavyweights and the newly added women’s flyweight division kicking off their regular seasons. The heavyweight main event pits [autotag]Ante Delija[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Valentin Moldavsky[/autotag], while the featured women’s flyweight has Bellator champ [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] taking on [autotag]Julianna Velasquez[/autotag] in a trilogy after Carmouche won the first two encounters.
You can watch the fighters step on the scale and their faceoffs in the video above.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for PFL 2024, Week 1.
Bellator champ Liz Carmouche looks to add a PFL title and an extra $1 million to her collection beginning at 2024 PFL 1 on Friday.
[autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] didn’t hesitate when PFL offered her the chance to win a title in a second organization.
Carmouche (20-7), a former UFC title challenger and current Bellator women’s flyweight champion, will look to further enhance her resume on Friday when she meets Juliana Velasquez (12-2) in a regular season opener at 2024 PFL 1, which takes place at Boeing Center in San Antonio, Texas (ESPN2, ESPN+).
After PFL’s acquisition of Bellator, Carmouche said her future was somewhat unclear. However, PFL opted to drop its previous women’s division at featherweight and incorporate a 125-pound roster for the upcoming season, and Carmouche was offered the chance to participate.
“I wouldn’t say that I chose (fighting in PFL next over Bellator),” Carmouche told MMA Junkie Radio. “I would say that they said, ‘Here’s an opportunity, it’s a great opportunity.’ They didn’t know what they were going to be doing with the females outside of this tournament, and to me it was a no-brainer. To have a belt in another organization, to work for $1 million? That’s the most women ever get. So I would be stupid to have not gone for it.”
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Carmouche looks to start her run to the $1 million prize in a positive fashion when she meets a familiar foe in Velasquez, who she beat for the Bellator belt in April 2022 before successfully defending it against the Brazilian in a December 2022 rematch.
The first fight may not be the most problematic for Carmouche, because at 40, she’s the oldest athlete in the division. If she runs the gauntlet and makes it to the final, that would mean four fights between Friday and November.
Although Carmouche admitted she’ll have to carefully monitor her preparation and weight cuts, she is thrilled by the idea of a busy year and intends to take full advantage of the situation and become the first fighter to win a Bellator title and a PFL season championship.
“When I started off my career, I think the first year I had eight or nine fights, and I thought that’s what the fighting lifestyle was,” Carmouche said. “When it started to slow down I was like, ‘I don’t really like this.’ I’m in the gym 24/7, 365 days a year. I’ll take a day off here or there, but I don’t really take vacations. Having a goal set every two months is perfect for me to just focus on what I need to in the training camp.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for 2024 PFL 1.
Could one of the biggest MMA promotions on the globe be in its final days? Our “Spinning Back Clique” discusses.
Immediately after celebrating a big milestone event, questions about Bellator MMA’s future were posed to its president [autotag]Scott Coker[/autotag].
Bellator 300 was a big show for the California-based promotion that featured three title fights. The promotion aimed for four at Pechanga Arena in San Diego, but one apart in the days before the event. Regardless, champions [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag], [autotag]Cris Cyborg[/autotag], and [autotag]Usman Nurmagomedov[/autotag] entered and exited with their respective titles, but what comes next for them and everyone else on the Bellator roster is uncertain.
At the post-event news conference, Coker was asked to speak about the rumors of an upcoming sale or merger of the promotion. There have even been talks that all operations may cease. Coker wouldn’t comment much about the situation, considering everything that will happen going forward with the promotion lies in the hands of its parent company Viacom.
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Based on what answers Coker did or did not provide about Bellator’s future at the news conference, what can we expect going forward? Will there be other events after Bellator 301? Is that event guaranteed to take place? Is Viacom going to shut it all down?
Our “Spinning Back Clique” of Farah Hannoun, Mike Bohn, and Brian “Goze” Garcia discuss along with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia.
Watch their discussion in the video above, and don’t miss this week’s full “Spinning Back Clique” episode below on YouTube or in podcast form.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 300.
Find out how much weight all 32 fighters at Bellator 300 gained from the Friday morning official weigh-ins to Saturday night fights.
In California, fighters have their weights checked on the day of competition – not just when they have to hit their marks on the scale.
In 2017, the California State Athletic Commission put a plan in place to try to cut back on excessive weight cutting. Within those rules was a cap on how much a fighter could gain from the official weigh-ins to the fight.
If a fighter gained more than 10 percent back before the bout, the commission then could make a recommendation that he or she move to a higher weight class. If a fighter gained more than 15 percent, the commission had plans in place to potentially cancel fights.
At Bellator 300, which took place this past Saturday in San Diego, 14 of the 32 fighters on the card gained more than 10 percent of their weight back. Three of those 14 exceeded the 15 percent threshold. MMA Junkie obtained a list of fight-night weights Monday from the CSAC.
Check out the weight gains and percentages for all 32 fighters on the card at Pechanga Arena.
