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.