Ilima-Lei Macfarlane heads into Saturday’s Bellator 295 looking to get her belt back.
Coming off of two straight losses, former Bellator flyweight champion Macfarlane was looking to rebound in her last bout versus Bruna Ellen last August and avoid a three-fight skid.
While she admittedly did not have the best experience against Ellen, Macfarlane picked up a unanimous decision to get herself back on track and notch her first win since 2019.
“It was a bittersweet victory, only because I did miss weight for that, and that’s the first time in my career that I ever missed weight or had issues with the cut,” Macfarlane told MMAWeekly.com. “It just felt like it tainted everything.
“I couldn’t really enjoy getting my hand raised because of it. Watching the fight I could tell I was visibly slow and sluggish.”
One of the big issues Macfarlane faced was a nagging injury which kept her from being able to train to her full potential, and is something she has been able to overcome as she readies for her first bout of 2023.
“This camp was actually the first camp that I had in four fights that was grappling-heavy,” said Macfarlane. “I wasn’t able to do that in my previous camp due to my knee issues I was having. It wasn’t allowing me to grapple. To finally be able to get my knee back on track and get on the mat was amazing.”
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane faces Kana Watanabe at Bellator 295
On Saturday in Honolulu, Hawaii, Macfarlane (12-2) will look to build a winning streak for herself when she takes on Kana Watanabe (11-1-1) in the 125-pound Bellator 295 co-main event.
“Kana’s a Judo specialist and is one the best grapplers in the division, so this match-up is very interesting,” Macfarlane said. “We are some of the top grapplers in the division but with very different styles. I’m more offensive, submission hunter, and she’s a little more positional.
“I’m going to try to keep it on the feet and not give her any advantage. Her one loss is coming by knockout on the feet, so I’m going to try to keep it on the feet as much as I can. I do love to stand and bang, but if it does go to the ground I think it’s going to be a very fun back-and-forth matchup.”
Feeling closer to moving on to the next stage of her life, Macfarlane would like to make her way back to the Bellator flyweight championship and believes a win over Watanabe will get her one step closer to her goal.
“Of course I would like to put a stamp on it, because I think the winner of this fight, in my eyes, is going to get the next title shot against the winner of the Friday night fight,” said Macfarlane. “While yes I would like to get that shot one more time, I do take it one fight at a time.”
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Macfarlane’s Career Highlight Reel
(Video courtesy of BellatorMMA)
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane targets title belt after Bellator 295
