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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.
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.
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.
[autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag], 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.”
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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.
Check out all the facts and figures from Bellator 300, which saw Usman Nurmagomedov, Cris Cyborg and Liz Carmouche exit as champs.
The landmark Bellator 300 event took place Saturday at Pechanga Arena in San Diego, and all three champions who entered the event left with the belts around their waists.
[autotag]Usman Nurmagomedov[/autotag] (18-0 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) retained his lightweight belt in the main event and advanced to the grand prix final, [autotag]Cris Cyborg[/autotag]’s (27-2 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) continued her dominant legacy to retain women’s featherweight gold in the co-headliner, and women’s flyweight champion [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag]’s (20-7 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) scored a stoppage in the main card opener.
For more on the numbers to come out of the event, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from Bellator 300.
Check out these photos highlighting Liz Carmouche’s TKO win over Ilima-Lei Macfarlane to retain her flyweight title at Bellator 300.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoKwoL-WUVk
Check out these photos highlighting [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag]’s TKO win over Ilima-Lei Macfarlane to retain her flyweight title at Bellator 300 from Pechanga Arena in San Diego. (Photos courtesy of Bellator MMA)
Cris Cyborg led the list of Bellator 300 fighters who earned six figures.
SAN DIEGO – Five of the six Bellator 300 main-card participants earned a disclosed payout of $150,000, with [autotag]Cris Cyborg[/autotag] earning twice that amount.
California State Athletic Commission executive director Andy Foster released a full list of fighter purses Saturday to MMA Junkie. The amounts reflect the disclosed payouts only and do not include any off-contract bonuses, sponsor payments or discretionary bonuses.
Lightweight champion [autotag]Usman Nurmagomedov[/autotag], [autotag]Brent Primus[/autotag], [autotag]Cat Zingano[/autotag], flyweight champ [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag], and [autotag]Ilima-Lei Macfarlane[/autotag] each took home $150,000, while women’s featherweight champ Cyborg earned $300,000. All six fighters earned a flat amount as opposed to being paid show money and win money.
Scroll below to see what the 32 fighters to compete at Bellator 300 were paid – disclosed amounts only.
This was likely not how Liz Carmouche wanted to finish the fight, by sending her friend off on a stretcher at Bellator 300. But it was unavoidable.
SAN DIEGO – Bellator president Scott Coker figured the friendship between flyweight champion [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] and [autotag]Ilima-Lei Macfarlane[/autotag] would go out the window once the bell rang in their Bellator 300 fight.
It wasn’t quite like that – but in the end, one of them was taken off on a stretcher.
Carmouche (20-7 MMA, 7-0 BMMA), who wasn’t at risk of losing her title after Macfarlane (13-3 MMA, 12-3 BMMA) missed weight, earned a surprising fifth-round TKO victory to retain her belt Saturday night at Pechanga Arena that, at times, resembled a glorified sparring session – at least in the beginning.
Round 1 saw the two friends mostly just circle each other, with Macfarlane initiating most of the offense, although nothing significant ever landed. Prior to Round 2, referee Blake Grice brought both women to the center of the cage to encourage action, but it didn’t exactly resonate.
It wasn’t until Round 3 that things took a turn once Carmouche found a home for leg kicks that Macfarlane had trouble defending. Carmouche landed several of them, which showed visible damage on Macfarlane’s left leg. That continued into Round 4, with a Carmouche leg kick dropping Macfarlane to the canvas, but the champ didn’t rush in for a finish and let her friend back up. Some more leg kicks had Macfarlane nearly hopping on one leg, but she made it to the end of the round hobbling back to her corner.
Just 17 seconds into the fifth, Carmouche landed one more leg kick as Macfarlane closed distance, and this one buckled the challenger for good and forced Grice to stop the fight.
Given what was said leading up to the fight, it likely wasn’t the way Carmouche would’ve liked the fight to end but was unavoidable.
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Up-to-the-minute Bellator 300 results include:
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 300.
