History remembers the winners. Liz Carmouche has often been fodder for some of the sport’s biggest victors. Woven through the fabric of women’s MMA, Carmouche has been a constant presence yet often overlooked. But entering her second defense of the women’s flyweight title at Bellator 294, Carmouche has quietly built her resume up to be considered among the best pioneers.
Ronda Rousey is often credited as the driving force behind women’s MMA in the mainstream, rightfully so, but she did not accomplish it alone. Carmouche was in the trenches with Rousey at the very foundation of the UFC women’s divisions. When UFC president Dana White reneged on his inflammatory statement that women would never fight in the UFC, it was Rousey and Carmouche who engaged in the first UFC women’s fight, headlining UFC 157 with the newly-minted UFC women’s bantamweight championship at stake.
A dozen years into her professional career, and after three failed world title bids, Carmouche finally replaced the weight of failed expectations with a championship belt. It was “super validating” for Carmouche to claim the Bellator women’s flyweight championship last April, in what she and many others perceived as her final stand.
“It took…
