A familiar face stands between
Liz
Carmouche and the desire to extend her current championship
reign beyond one year.
The Team Hurricane Awesome mainstay will defend the undisputed
Bellator
MMA women’s flyweight crown against
DeAnna
Bennett when their rematch headlines
Bellator 294 on Friday at the Neil S. Blaisdell Center in
Honolulu. Carmouche steps into the cage with the wind of a
five-fight winning streak at her back. She last appeared at
Bellator 289, where she retained the 125-pound title with a
second-round armbar submission of
Juliana
Velasquez on Dec. 9. Bennett, meanwhile, has recorded
back-to-back-to-back wins since her September 2020 submission loss
to Carmouche. She last competed on Aug. 12, when she was awarded a
unanimous verdict over
Justine
Kish at Bellator 284.
As Carmouche and Bennett inch ever closer to their second
encounter, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them
to this point:
39: Years of age for Carmouche, who was born on Feb. 19, 1984 in
Lafayette, Louisiana.
8: Carmouche victories by knockout or technical knockout,
accounting for 45% of her career total (18). Her list of victims
includes Velasquez,
Kana
Watanabe and
Jessica
Andrade. Carmouche holds four other victories by submission
(22%) and six others by decision (33%).
52: Rounds completed by Carmouche as a professional mixed martial
artist. She has reached the judges on 11 different occasions and
sports a 6-5 record in those bouts.
4: Countries in which Carmouche has plied her MMA trade. She has
gone 15-6 in the United States, 2-0 in Mexico, 1-0 in the Czech
Republic and 0-1 in Uruguay.
.756: Cumulative winning percentage between the six
opponents—
Alexis
Davis (twice),
Valentina
Shevchenko,
Miesha Tate,
Ronda
Rousey,
Sarah
Kaufman and
Marloes
Coenen—who have beaten Carmouche. They carry a combined record
of 120-39.
38: Years of age for Bennett, who was born in Fremont, California,
on Nov. 18, 1984.
9: Bennett wins by decision, accounting for 69% of her career total
(13).
Alejandra
Lara,
Jennifer
Maia and
Julianna
Pena are among those she has outpointed. Bennett owns two other
wins by knockout or technical knockout (15.5%) and two more by
submission (15.5%).
132: Seconds needed for Bennett to put away
Sharon
Jacobson with a rear-naked choke at a Showdown Fights event on
Jan. 24, 2014. More than nine years later, it remains her fastest
finish to date.
11: Consecutive calendar years in which Bennett has fought at least
once. She went 1-0 in 2012, 1-0 in 2013, 4-0 in 2014, 2-0 in 2015,
0-2 in 2016, 0-1-1 in 2017, 1-1 in 2018, 1-2 in 2019, 0-1 in 2020,
1-0 in 2021 and 2-0 in 2022.
104: Combined victories between the seven opponents—Carmouche,
Miranda
Maverick,
Karina
Rodriguez,
Kelly
Kobold-Schmitz,
Jodie
Esquibel,
Roxanne
Modafferi and
Livinha
Souza—who have defeated Bennett. They boast a .677 cumulative
winning percentage at 104-49-2.