HONOLULU — It’s become a sight as familiar as any at the highest level of mixed martial arts in recent years: Ilima-Lei Macfarlane looking dominant in another title defense.
Fighting in front of another spirited hometown crowd Saturday night, Macfarlane dominated a tough Kate Jackson (11-4-1 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) for 25 minutes to earn a unanimous decision on scores of 50-45, 50-44, 50-44 in the main event of Bellator 236.
That marked the fourth successful flyweight title defense for Macfarlane. And in this day and age, when a champion comes this close to cleaning out her division, she starts to entertain dreams of champ-champ status.
“I want to be champ-champ status. I want that champ-champ status, or I want that opportunity,” Macfarlane told MMA Junkie backstage at the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena. “So I’m saying it now: I want a bantamweight division.”
Granted, that was one of two major items on Macfarlane’s wish list. Bellator has found success with grand prix tournaments, and Macfarlane wants a women’s tourney. Friday, Bellator president Scott Coker said that with the addition of Macfarlane’s close friend and gym mate Liz Carmouche, a flyweight tournament is on the company’s agenda.
And while the teammates would have to sort through who from their San Diego camp would be which fighter’s corner, Macfarlane believes she speaks for both herself and Carmouche about the possibility of meeting in a tournament matchup.
“We are totally prepared to fight each other,” Macfarlane said. “Obviously we would want to be on the other side of the bracket. But yeah, I am so down for a tournament. When I heard that Scott announced (a tournament), I’m like, oh great, I don’t have to call it out on the mic, because had I won the fight, I was going to call for either a tournament, or call for a bantamweight division.”
For his part, Coker doesn’t sound like he’s in a rush to institute a new women’s weight class, noting that it’s not a matter of Macfarlane making the weight.
“I don’t think she had that hard of a time to get to ’25,” Coker told reporters, including MMA Junkie, after Bellator 236. “I’ll have to talk to her, but when these fighters are in their camps and they’re kind of doing their thing – I kind of stay away. But we’ll talk to her. But to me, we have a 125-pound weight class. She looked great in there, she didn’t gas. It’s not like she cuts so much weight she gassed out there.
“She was in a tough match for five rounds and she handled it, so to me, we’d like her to stay there. If it was really something that she had to do, we would consider it.”