‘She Had Already Lost’

“I thought that she’d have such a strong vendetta after their last fight and looking to come out guns blazing. I didn’t think it was gonna go to have a possibility of a decision.”

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA — The women’s Flyweight division has warmed up in recent years across the mixed martial arts (MMA) landscape.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) crowned its third 125-pound champion in promotional history at UFC 285 this past March 2023. Mexico’s Alexa Grasso did the unthinkable, dethroning Valentina Shevchenko via a fourth round face crank (watch highlights), leading to a rematch this past month (Sept. 16, 2023).

Unfortunately for both, Grasso and Shevchenko battled it out to a split draw in their Noche UFC headliner (watch highlights). The current Bellator Flyweight titleholder, Liz Carmouche, is familiar with Shevchenko, having been one of the three women to fight her twice. “Girlrilla” believes that the lack of aggression from “The Bullet” ultimately led to her downfall before the action truly picked up.

“In all honesty, I mean when it comes to the title, usually, when it goes to a decision, it’s like when it comes to you’re going to court and you’re trying to make a decision,” Carmouche told MMA Mania. “If you can say without a shot of a doubt, it’s the same thing — there were doubts in that. There were questions back and forth. What I can say is I was really surprised that Shevchenko didn’t come out stronger than what she did. I thought that she’d have such a strong vendetta after their last fight and looking to come out guns blazing. I didn’t think it was gonna go to have a possibility of a decision. So, in my mind, when she let that happen, she had already lost to Grasso.”

Carmouche closed out her lengthy UFC run with her rematch against Shevchenko in August 2019, suffering a unanimous decision loss. Since then, the San Diego resident has been flawless, winning six straight with the Bellator title along the way.

The next defense for Carmouche comes against one of her longtime friends and former teammates, the inaugural champion, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, at Bellator 300 this weekend (Sat., Oct. 7, 2023).

“Yeah, it’s definitely different you know,” Carmouche said. “When you’re facing a friend and like everybody said, you’re going out there and you have to hit each other, there’s damage [that’s] going to be done. It may not be your intent, you never want to go out and maim somebody and end their career, but things happen, and it’s still a fight. You’re still punching each other, you’re still kicking, hitting, doing all this damage to each other. And the last thing I want, I’ve said ideally, where can I see this fight going? It would be just me putting her to sleep — no damage done to the limbs, no damage done to the face. Just nice and easy out. Just a little nap and she wakes up, and all is done as opposed to both of us coming up being battered, which is honestly probably where it’s gonna go instead.”

---

To check out the latest Bellator MMA-related news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive news archive right here.