Ilima-Lei Macfarlane’s dream finish to her MMA career is halfway to reality.
Longtime friend and training partner Liz Carmouche successfully defended her flyweight world title when she made a squirming DeAnna Bennett tap out to an arm-triangle choke in the final minute of the fourth round in the main event of Bellator 294 on Friday night at Blaisdell Arena.
Carmouche (19-7), who is a perfect 6-0 in Bellator, was down 30-27 on all three judges’ scorecards entering the fourth round.
Bennett (13-8-1), who failed to make weight and was ineligible to win the title, used her wrestling and takedowns to nullify Carmouche on the mat to take the first three rounds.
She was on her way to doing the same in the fourth when Carmouche managed to score top position for one of the first times of the night. Slowly and surely, she eventually worked to the arm-triangle finish, forcing Bennett to tap out as she kicked her legs on the canvas at 4 minutes, 29 seconds.
“I definitely didn’t want any dominance on her part, but if there is one thing I could just feel in the way her body was moving, she didn’t struggle to miss weight. She struggled in having to go back four times and keeping to push to make it,” Carmouche said. “If you have the energy to put on a face, if you have the energy to joke around to make light of the fact you’re not making weight, you have the energy to stay in that sauna, work out, and make the weight. Her claim to fame in this sport is missing weight not making weight.”
Carmouche, who once challenged Ronda Rousey for the UFC bantamweight title, has won five of her six Bellator fights by submission or TKO.
She has never missed weight in her career. Bennett also missed weight the first time the two fought three years ago by more than 6 pounds. Carmouche won that fight by submission in the third round.
“If she put on that performance having made weight, I would be saying something different,” Carmouche said. “I would give her props for what she did. But the reality is she cheated yet again by missing weight, like I said she would for this fight. If I outweigh somebody and I didn’t have to cut the weight, I would do pretty well on top too.”
In her postfight interview in the cage with commentator Big John McCarthy, Carmouche avoided the question about her next fight, saying she wanted to spend time with her family.
She admitted later in her postfight press conference that she knows exactly what’s next.
She will be in attendance for tonight’s Bellator 295 card and expects to be called into the cage at the end of the flyweight fight between No. 2-ranked Kana Watanabe and Macfarlane.
“First of all, it’s Hawaii, and I love that they do these back-to-back events so that I can be in attendance,” Carmouche said. “I get to support my friend, Ilima, and while I’m a big fan of Kana and I’m a big fan of Ilima, at the end of the day, I’m a bigger fan of Ilima and I want to see her succeed. I perfectly expect at the end of the fight to get called into the cage and asked to be fighting against someone.”
Carmouche originally won the title with a TKO of Juliana Velasquez at Bellator 278 at the Blaisdell last year.
Nine fights made up Friday’s event, with 11 more to take place tonight.
Former UFC title contender Sara McMann, who also challenged Rousey for the UFC bantamweight championship, made her Bellator debut with a dominant unanimous decision over No. 2-ranked featherweight Arlene Blencowe.
McMann, who won a silver medal in wrestling at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, improved to 3-0 all-time at the Blaisdell.
She won fights in 2011 and ’12 under the ProElite banner against Raquel Pa’aluhi and Hitomi Akano.
“What a freaking introduction to a new promotion. I got one off the toughest chicks here,” McMann said of Blancowe. “I think it would be great to beat (Cris) Cyborg to be the Bellator champion. When I came to this division, this is what I set my heart on.”
Heavyweight Tyrell Fortune, who fought on the preliminary card, was stretchered from the cage after his opponent was disqualified for repeated punches and elbows to the back of the head.
Fortune took 12 to 15 unanswered shots to the back of the head before the referee finally intervened and stopped the fight.
—
BELLATOR 294 RESULTS
Main card
Women’s flyweight world title
Liz Carmouche (19-7) def. DeAnna Bennett (13-8-1), submission (arm triangle choke), 4:29, R4
HW: Tim Johnson (16-9) def. Said Sowma (8-5), unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
145: Sara McMann (14-8) def. Arlene Blencowe (15-10), unanimous decision (29-27, 30-27, 30-26)
135: Danny Sabatello (14-2) def. Marcos Breno (15-3), submission (rear naked choke), 4:10, R2
170: Levan Chokheli (12-2) def. Michael Lombardo (13-4), unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Preliminary card
155: Killys Mota (15-3) def. Kenneth Cross (13-4), submission (rear naked choke), 2:14, R2
HW: Tyrell Fortune (13-3) def. Sergei Bilostennyi (10-3), disqualification (illegal strikes), 3:26, R1
145: Cris Lencioni (11-3) def. Blake Smith (7-4), submission (inverted triangle choke), 3:39, R2
185: Sharaf Davlatmurodov (19-4-1) def. Anthony Adams (9-4), unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
