This past Saturday at the historic Bellator 300 event, a women’s flyweight title fight kicked off the main card on Showtime. Champion Liz Carmouche (20-7) was looking to successfully defend her title for the third time as she took on former champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (13-3).
Now, this fight was interesting from the jump. Macfarlane missed weight so she was not able to win the title even if she won the fight against Carmouche. It was the second straight title defense for Carmouche where the challenger missed weight so if she lost the fight, the title would become vacant.
The fight got off to a very slow start and through the first two rounds, the referee gave warnings to both fighters letting them know that they needed to give the judges something to score. As the fight went on, Carmouche was getting the better of things. In the final round, Macfarlane was hurting on her front leg where she’s had knee issues.
A swift kick from Carmouche sent the challenger down and the fight was over. Carmouche picked up the TKO win at Bellator 300 and her third successful title defense.
What’s next after Bellator 300?
Liz Carmouche made the best decision over her career when she made the jump to Bellator. She was one of the very best flyweights in the UFC, but after falling short to Valentina Shevchenko in her title fight, her future prospects as a champion didn’t look that great.
She looked rejuvenated when she made the jump to Bellator. After three dominant wins, she earned herself a title shot against Juliana Velasquez and won by fourth round TKO. The stoppage was questionable leading to an immediate rematch where Carmouche completely dominated.
Since making the move over to Bellator, she’s a perfect 7-0 with six stoppages. She’s been an absolute monster. After this win, she talked about what she wants next and that’s a fight with Kana Watanabe. Watanabe could’ve had the shot on Saturday night, but she lost a very questionable split decision to Macfarlane in their title eliminator.
She bounced back strong with a win and now appears to be the number one contender. Carmouche and Watanabe fought once before with Carmouche turning in the performance of her career stopping Watanabe in just 35 seconds. I’m assuming the rematch will be what Bellator decides to do and I think it’ll be a lot closer next time around.