Outside Source
Liz Carmouche knows Ronda Rousey well, having broken ground with her in the first ever women’s fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a match that the latter would win by first-round submission. Ten years after her last professional mixed martial arts bout where she lost to Amanda Nunes, Rousey is back in action, taking on another pioneer in Gina Carano. The women square off for the first ever Most Valuable Promotions MMA event, being broadcasted on Netflix, where Carmouche will be watching.
As Carmouche prepares for her next fight in the Professional Fighters League on June 27 at PFL San Diego, she spoke with Sherdog.com and provided her predictions for MVP “Rousey vs. Carano,” hoping to see the unexpected.
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“It’s funny because prior to me starting my career and getting into fighting, I was a huge Gina Carano fan, a huge [Cris Cyborg] fan, I watched both of them. So I got to see her career and then the end of her career where she retired, and now, she (Carano) is coming back. Then, of course, I got to see Ronda as we’re side-by-side parallel watch if our paths are going to cross, and they eventually do. So, actually having faced Ronda and just seeing what she’s done with her career, I think that she’s going to be the winner out of this.
“For one, just the Olympic level of tenacity that they have and being able to establish themselves in that career. I think having watched Gina, unless she’s done these crazy grappling improvements throughout her career, and just taking that time off and doing it, I think that Ronda has it. Striking wise, I feel they’re pretty well-matched, but the ground is really where Ronda just stands out and shines brighter than Carano. But again, it’s still a good fight and I hope that I’m completely wrong and they do something completely different that’s unexpected, because that’d be really cool.”
While she’s part of the PFL and has a fight coming up, Carmouche went on to say that she believes a storybook ending would be in a co-promotion fight, coming full circle against Rousey, or just competing on the same card together.
“I feel like after how we started off in the UFC, and what we were able to achieve there in making that historic moment, that would be a fantastic moment. To do something where we come back, fast-forward to the present and do something similar, whether it’s her headlining a fight at 145 and I’m headlining 135, I don’t think anybody could predict that. It’s certainly a great way to be able to combine the two organizations and really showcase women’s MMA and bring attention to it the way it deserves.”
Coming off her 2025 tournament championship, Carmouche has said she has two very straightforward goals for herself coming into her first fight of the year: Add a new belt to her collection, continue to campaign, and hopefully open, a 135-pound division for women in the PFL. With the new rankings system in place, Carmouche has her sights set on the undisputed women’s flyweight title, and if she can either open the women’s bantamweight division for the PFL or represent the company in a crossover fight while sharing the card with a former foe, the goals have been laid out.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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