HONOLULU – Ilima-Lei Macfarlane says she would have no issue fighting her teammate and newly signed Bellator flyweight Liz Carmouche if their paths cross in 2020.
Macfarlane, the Bellator 125-pound champion, notched her fourth successful title defense when she defeated Kate Jackson via unanimous decision in the Bellator 236 main event.
And with company president Scott Coker hinting at a possible flyweight grand prix, both Macfarlane (11-4-1 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) and Carmouche (13-7 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) have stated that they’d have no issue facing each other inside the Bellator cage.
“We are totally prepared to fight each other,” Macfarlane told MMA Junkie backstage at Neal S. Blaisdell Arena. “Obviously we’d want to be on the opposite sides of the brackets, but yeah, I am so down for a tournament. In fact, when I heard that Scott announced it, I was like, ‘OK, great, I don’t have to call it out on the mic.’”
The only potential issue in a possible Macfarlane-Carmouche matchup is a conflict of interest with regard to their cornering situations. Both fighters come from the same camp and share the same coaches. But Macfarlane said she has a simple solution.
“The only thing that we have to figure out – and we’ve already talked about this with our coaches – because Liz and I have been with Manolo and Bill since the beginning, and so they’re like, ‘What are we going to do?’ And we’re like, ‘OK, why don’t you guys just be in the audience, and we’ll just have our teammates corner us or something?’”
It remains to be seen whether the two are destined to face off, but it seems both Macfarlane and Carmouche are making sure all their bases are covered, just in case.
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane: Liz Carmouche and I 'totally prepared to fight each other' in Bellator