Liz Carmouche Has No Issues With Fighting Teammate Ilima-Lei Macfarlane
Former UFC fighter Liz Carmouche recently signed a multi-fight contract with Bellator MMA and will compete at flyweight in the promotion.
A recently signed Carmouche is teammates with Bellator Women’s Flyweight Champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane and Carmouche has no issues taking on her teammate.
“The great thing about Ilima and I is that I mentored her from the beginning,” Carmouche said backstage at Bellator 236 (via Danny Segura & Matt Erickson of MMA Junkie). “I was the first person when she walked through the doors, I was the first person that she saw. (I’m) that training partner she calls when everyone doesn’t show up because it’s the holiday or they’re injured. No matter what, she can call me, and I’ll come through, and I’m there to help her. We’ve been on same competitions together, on the same tournaments, and we’re looking at (each other) like, ‘I know the coaches said we’re not supposed to do this, and we’re supposed to tap out, but we’re going to do this as hardest we possibly can. We’re going to be mean to each other.’ And we always said if we fight each other it’s going to be the bloodiest, goriest fight, and we’re going to throw down until one of us dies. And that’s because in the end, that’s the person I care about. We support each other, we call each other sister wife, so I would much rather fight somebody for the belt that I care about than somebody I don’t really know.”
Carmouche previously stated that she didn’t want an immediate title shot when signing with the promotion, but the fighter’s paths could cross with Macfarlane with a few wins.
The UFC veteran says that she and Macfarlane always knew they would meet in the cage one day.
“We’ve always had that sneaking suspicion that this moment could happen,” Carmouche said. “We always knew in our hearts that eventually we’re going to be fighting each other for the belt. We already knew that, and we’ve been in talks about that for a long time.”
There is no word yet as to when Carmouche could make her promotional debut or whom that will come against.
