Liz Carmouche closed the book on her rivalry with Juliana Velasquez in emphatic fashion at Bellator 289.
“Gir-Rilla” successfully defended her flyweight crown in Friday’s co-main event, as she tapped her Brazilian foe with an armbar 4:24 into Round 2 of their rematch at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. It was welcome closure after Carmouche’s controversial fourth-round stoppage of Velasquez at Bellator 278 in April resulted in her opponent unsuccessfully appealing to have the fight overturned.
“It felt great. My mindset is to walk into every fight thinking that I have to earn the belt,” Carmouche said at Friday’s post-fight press conference. “Every fight, I have to train like I have to earn the right to have the belt.”
With her first successful title defense in the books, Carmouche turned her attention to becoming a two-division champion in Bellator MMA. That will require some cooperation from the promotion, because Carmuche wants to see the launch of a women’s 135-pound weight class in the near future. She even has a hypothetical adversary in mind for the inaugural banamweight championship fight: Team Hurricane Awesome stablemate Ilima-Lei Macfarlane.
“Ilima-Lei Macfarlane and I have been training partners for years,” Carmouche said. “We have a lot of respect and we’re really great friends. She wants to retire, and she wants a fight against me to be her retirement. After her not making weight [at flyweight] her last time – and who wants to cut all the way down all the time? – it would make sense to me.
“I want to be Bellator’s 135 champion and I want to hold a belt in two divisions. And I can’t think of anybody better to do that with than Ilima – her retirement fight and my opening to a new division in Bellator. So I want to fight her in Hawaii for her retirement.”
Thus far, Bellator president Scott Coker hasn’t committed to adding a 135-pound weight class, with his biggest concern being the lack of depth in the division.
“It’s mostly wishful thinking, but if there’s one thing I’ve been doing since I’ve been in Bellator, it’s trying to put things into fruition and putting out there what I want,” Carmouche said. “… I think that Bellator is going to listen, and hopefully they’ll meet me with this and we’ll make a 135 division.”
Regardless of what the future holds, Carmouche shows know signs of slowing down in her MMA career —even with her 39th birthday on the horizon.
“When I look at all the other 20-year-olds out there, they may have youth, but they’re doing it wrong,” she said. “I’m ahead of the curve of everyone else. It’s mostly my mind over my body. I love the evolution of the sport. There’s always something new to learn; [fighting] is just an opportunity to test what I keep learning.”
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