HONOLULU – Though she benefited from the ultimate outcome, new Bellator women’s flyweight champion Liz Carmouche agrees with Mike Beltran’s stoppage that earned her a title.
Carmouche (17-7 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) won via TKO in the fourth round of a Bellator 278 title challenge vs. Juliana Velasquez, a decision her opposition did not agree with. Immediately after the stoppage, Velasquez (12-0 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) and her coaches voiced their displeasure to referee Mike Beltran.
The stoppage received criticism beyond the cage, too, as many viewers called it early. For Carmouche, one of the three people involved in the sequence, she hypothesized Velasquez wouldn’t have been able to get out regardless.
“I think he stepped in at the right time,” Carmouche told MMA Junkie at a post-fight news conference. “I think if he let it continue, it could’ve been a broken orbital. It could’ve been her going unconscious. I think when he stepped in, it was the right thing to do to protect the fighter. She wasn’t doing anything to correctly advance her position safely and she wasn’t doing anything to defend it. So if she just kept taking it, ending a fight that way, I’d much rather see a fighter step up and us shake hands rather than have her go to the hospital and not remember what happened. So I think he did the right thing.”
Will a rematch be next? Maybe. Bellator president Scott Coker has yet to issue his thoughts on the Bellator 278 headliner, something reporters will likely get after Bellator 279 tomorrow. Carmouche, however, hopes for a new challenge next.
“I hope not,” Carmouche said. “I get kind of bored with rematches. I like to see something different and kind of change it up. I love an opportunity to let someone else in the division work their way up and see what else I can show off in the cage.”
Liz Carmouche (@iamgirlrilla) is the new Bellator women’s flyweight champion! The crowd loved it, but former champion Juliana Velasquez took issue.#Bellator278 | More: https://t.co/kzE1mFPg8C pic.twitter.com/za64dnjXtM
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) April 23, 2022
The victory, controversial or not, is Carmouche’s first major promotional title win. She tried once in Strikeforce, and twice in the UFC, but to no avail. Ultimately, she will go down in the record books as a champion, something she said was meant to be in Bellator.
“I feel like all those opportunities were just lessons. They were mistakes and things I had to take away from it so I’d be prepared for today in Bellator, not any of the other organizations.”
The event was solely attended by military members, veterans, and first responders. A former marine, Carmouche won gold in front of her peers – something that holds more weight than anything else.
“That means more to me, honestly,” Carmouche said. “It could be a group of 10 people. It could be people from a squadron. When it’s military, when it’s first responders, the sacrifices they make in their lives for the sake of other people, it’s unselfish. It’s always putting aside their free time, their lives to give to other people. That means more to me than doing it in front of a large crowd that paid for it. It’s being able to give back and give a free show for them to enjoy something like this.”
Bellator 278 took place Friday at Neal S. Blaisdell Center as the first of two events in a two-night doubleheader.