Liz Carmouche discusses her upcoming title defense against Juliana Velasquez at Bellator 289
Liz Carmouche has just about seen it all in her long MMA career, however at Bellator 289, the Bellator flyweight queen will experience so first in her career.
For starters, Carmouche is coming off a fourth round TKO win over Juliana Velasquez at Bellator 278 in which she won the flyweight title.
Prior to that fight, Carmouche fought for three major titles in Strikeforce and the UFC, but lost all three championship opportunities.
So now at 38-years-old, Carmouche is finally a champion and now at Bellator 289, she will make her first ever title defense.
Not only will it be her first title defense, but it also marks the first time in her career that she will be preparing for an immediate rematch as Carmouche and Velasquez will run things back.
In the last meeting, Velasquez got off to a fast start and appeared to be in full control of the fight until the fourth round. That’s when Carmouche would get Velasquez into a crucifix position and land 10 elbows before the referee stopped the fight.
Velasquez was not happy with the stoppage and immediately protested the referee’s decision to stop the fight. Then not long after the fight, Carmouche would appeal the decision.
While she didn’t win the appeal, the promotion felt it’d be best to have the two fight for a second time.
Prior to the fight, Carmouche spoke with MyMMANews about the rematch, what it was like to finally win a major championship and her time serving the United States in the military.
You can watch her full interview in the video above.
A full list of fights scheduled for Bellator 289 are listed below:
Raufeon Stots (IC) (18-1) vs. Danny Sabatello (13-1) – Bellator bantamweight grand prix semifinal
Liz Carmouche (C) (17-7) vs. Juliana Velasquez (12-1) – Bellator flyweight championship fight
Patchy Mix (16-1) vs. Magomed Magomedov (19-2) – Bellator bantamweight grand prix semifinal
Dalton Rosta (7-0) vs. Anthony Adams (9-2)
Denise Kielholtz (6-4) vs. Ilara Joanne (10-6)
Cody Law (6-1) vs. Cris Lencioni (9-3)
Kyle Crutchmer (9-1) vs. Jaleel Willis (15-4)
Kai Kamaka (9-5-1) vs. Kevin Boehm (9-5)
Mark Lemminger (12-5) vs. Michael Lombardo (12-3-1)
Pat Downey (1-0) vs. Christian Echols (2-2)
Cass Bell (5-2) vs. Jared Scoggins (10-2)
Randi Field (3-1) vs. Kristina Katsikis (1-2)
Theo Haig (1-0) vs. Kareem Kline (1-2)
