Ilima-Lei Macfarlane looks to have fun at Bellator 295
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane is in a different point in her career ahead of Bellator 295.
The start to her MMA was much different most fighters as she started her amateur career undefeated and then went on to have the best start possible to a professional career.
Macfarlane won her first 11 fights and in that span she won the Bellator flyweight championship at Bellator 186 and then went on to defend her title four times.
After the great start, Macfarlane suffered her first two losses as she lost back-to-back fights to Juliana Velasquez and Justine Kish.
After those losses, she bounced back into the win column at Bellator 284 when defeated Bruna Ellen, but Macfarlane doesn’t view the fight as a true win because she missed weight prior to the fight.
Of course, the obvious questions start now like, “How good does it feel to snap a losing streak?” or “Can you make another title run?”
Macfarlane knows those questions are there, but she can’t really answer them because her career is different than most fighters.
For the majority of fighters, they fall on their face, get up and continue the grind towards a title. Meanwhile, Macfarlane has accomplished all of that and now she’s going through what could be considered the toughest part of her career.
Rather than put pressure on herself like she did when she was the champ, her mindset is just to go out have fun.
Getting to fight in a fun stylistically matchup in her hometown against a tough opponent sounds fun to her and that’s what she has at Bellator 295 when she meets Kana Watanabe.
There is no pressure for Macfarlane as she plans on enjoying the moment instead of stressing about what could happen with a win or a loss or any of the outside noises.
Prior to Bellator 295, Macfarlane spoke with MyMMANews about the fight, her mindset coming into the fight, her foundation and her plans to sing karaoke after the fight with all of her hometown family and friends.
You can watch her full interview in the video above.
