Liz Carmouche remained undefeated in her three-year career with Bellator, beating Deanna Bennett and successfully defending her flyweight title last Friday night in Honolulu.
But the win wasn’t without some drama.
Bennett failed to make weight for the second time in as many competitions against Carmouche. Mixed martial arts is divided into weight categories to maintain more-even competitions. Bennett was 1.2 pounds overweight, so was not eligible to win the title herself.
Carmouche lashed out at Bennett after the fight, calling her a “cheater.”
From MMA Junkie:
“If you have the energy to put on a face, if you have the energy to joke around and make light of the fact that you’re not making weight, you have the energy to stay in that sauna, work out, and make the weight,” Carmouche said. “So she was fine. It’s just her claim to fame in this sport is missing weight, not making weight. That shouldn’t be it. You’re a professional MMA fighter. You think you deserve to be the champion by missing weight? That’s your whole career? You don’t deserve to have the belt. Now, if she put on that performance having made weight? I would be saying something different. I’d give her props for what she did. But the reality is that she cheated yet again by missing weight, like I said she would before this fight.”
Carmouche has been publicly out as gay for over a decade, wearing a pride-inspired rainbow mouthguard in her fights.
She had been one of the top fighters at UFC before making the move to Bellator in 2020.
