HONOLULU – The first of two events in Oahu are complete, and Liz Carmouche (19-7) will be leaving the island still Bellator MMA flyweight world champion.
Further down the Bellator 294 main card, Tim Johnson (16-9) earned a unanimous decision over Said Sowma, former Olympian Sara McMann (14-6) defeated Arlene Blencowe in her promotional debut at the Blaisdell Arena.
The No. 5-ranked bantamweight in Bellator, Danny Sabatello (14-2) finished Marcos Breno with a slick rear-naked choke submission, then got on the house microphone and announced his intentions to compete on Bellator’s upcoming event in Chicago.
The main card of tomorrow’s Bellator 295 can be seen live on Showtime beginning at 11 p.m. ET, while the preliminary portion of the card will kick off at 8 p.m. ET and can be viewed live and free on the Bellator MMA YouTube channel, the Showtime Sports YouTube channel, and Pluto TV.
Here are quotes from tonight’s winners at Bellator 294:
Carmouche, following her victory, on the first three rounds, and Bennett’s weight miss: “I definitely didn’t want any dominance on her part, but she didn’t struggle to miss weight. She still didn’t make the weight, and I could feel that in the beginning. She had success early, but she still didn’t have the gas tank at the end. … If you watch her, every time she had to walk back up to the scale – if you have the energy to make a face, you have the energy to stay in the sauna. Her claim to fame in this sport is missing weight. You don’t deserve to have the belt. Now, if she had the same performance while making weight, I would be giving her props. She cheated, yet again. If I outweighed somebody and didn’t have to cut weight, I would do pretty well on top, too.”
“I wanted to make a statement and finish her and get her out of the sport.”
On Bennett’s post-fight, in-cage comments: “She, just like her previous fights, was like, ‘I’m so sorry, I just didn’t make weight.’ Those excuses don’t fly. I stay up until 11 at night, cutting the weight, then I wake up at 5 to double and triple check. We’re professionals in this sport, and we’re in one of the biggest organizations in the sport, so we need to do everything the best way possible. She said she had nothing but respect for me. To me, if you don’t make weight, you don’t respect your opponent.”
On tomorrow’s Ilima-Lei Macfarlane vs. Kana Watanabe fight: “I’m gonna be in attendance tomorrow night. It’s Hawaii, and I love that we do these back-to-back events so that I can be in attendance. When I get to be out here, I get to attend and support me friend Ilima Macfarlane. At the end of the fight, I expect to be called into the cage to fight (the winner of her fight with Kana Watanabe).”
On her resilience: “I dug deep in myself. I’m not a quitter. I’m gonna show them what it means to be a Marine. No matter what it takes, no matter how hard it gets, you get it done. I could see she was getting tired. My coach was like, ‘That’s it. You’ve given her three, now finish it and get it done.’ Once I got her close, I could feel her energy level dying down.”
On considering retirement due to lack of contenders: “The end of my career doesn’t depend on the people around me. I’m not going to hang up my gloves because the people around me aren’t (on my level). I’m going to step up, I’m going to get it done, regardless of if it’s a rematch.”
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Johnson, following his win, on feeling pressure following career setbacks: “Not the pressure of the fight with Said, the pressure of my career. I told myself going in, ‘I could probably convince one more ‘prove it to me’ deal,’ but I didn’t want to leave it in anyone else’s hands. This fight camp has been filled with more adversity than I’ve dealt with in my career. I was in a car accident that I don’t know how I’m alive right now. I had kidney stones. This has been one heck of a fight camp.
“I’m not where I set out to be with my goals when I started out fighting, but with this win, I’m getting closer. This isn’t the best version of me that was out there, so I look forward to getting another fight. … Ideally, it’d be four more fights, then take it from there. I’m gonna go until my body or my brain tells me otherwise. I’m still able to keep up with all these young guns that are all full of piss and vinegar.
“Said deserves to be in this organization. He’s a great fighter. We both deserved to be ranked in this fight, and I hope he gets another fight and a contract with Bellator.
“I thought he would throw more leg kicks than he did. I ended up just rushing in on Said, as well. We had a gameplan, and some of it worked and some of it didn’t. I couldn’t find range (due to his teep kicks), but I was able to get a few solid takedowns. I don’t burn myself out. I get into how much I want to do, and it was my night tonight.”
On what he wants
On his strength of schedule: “Over 70 percent of the people I’ve fought in Bellator have fought for the belt or held the belt, so my quality of opposition is at the top. I came here to fight the best.” * * * * * McMann, following her victory: “(The difference between bantamweight and featherweight) wasn’t as big of a difference as I thought. )Opponent Arlene Blencowe) is on caliber with all the girls I fought in the UFC. What a freaking introduction to a new promotion; I got one of the toughest chicks here.” On the third-round knockdown: “I flashed for a second, but I did that in the first two rounds when she connected. She hits hard. I didn’t feel any worse in the third. When she connected in the other two rounds, I felt both of those, too. “I really wanted a lot more offense than what I did. In my head, I scouted here. I knew how tough she was. I just expected the fight to be at a high, hard pace. Either she was going to set it or I was, but I knew she was game for it. “I think that it would be great to beat (Cris) Cyborg to be the Bellator champion. When I came to this division, that’s what I set my heart on. It’s a worthy decision. But the division shouldn’t wait for her forever. For me, I think of it as: I’ll fight her sooner, or I’ll fight her later. “My team and I have the utmost respect for her striking and her toughness. We knew where the battleground was going to be.” * * * * * Sabatello, following his victory, on his personality and explicit language: “I’ve always been this way. It turns a lot of sponsorships away, a lot of money away. … I always preach to be who you are, and that’s who I am. I know that I have a lot of haters out there. I’m just bombarded by 20 hateful things before I see one positive comment. I don’t give a f-ck. “(Marcos Breno is) very powerful. He can put the lights out on anybody. I didn’t feel like going to sleep in here; I knew I would face adversity in there because when you’ve got a young kid in there, you’re going to get the best from them. He’s a very good fighter. He’s going to be very successful in Bellator, I know it. “My gameplan – I don’t care who’s listening – I do the same thing every time. Try to stop me. I take every opening. People say they don’t want to see me fight on the ground, stop my takedowns. I’m relentless with it. I didn’t get the first few takedowns. During, I’m thinking, ‘Money in the bank.’ He’s getting tired. I kept going, I kept shooting … boom, done. “(Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg) is a good friend of mine. He encouraged me to show off my striking a little bit, so shout out to that. When you get a DM from Mark Zuckerberg saying to show off the hands, you show off the hands. He recognizes real talent. He recognizes that I’m awesome, and a fucking good fighter, and that’s just what it is. “I need to fight June 16 in Chicago. That’s my family, my fans, my friends. I need to bring the house down there. It’s going to be a sick venue for me. But first, I’ve got to go back down to Ft. Lauderdale. You’ve got to celebrate the wins in this game. I’ve got one week of partying before I go back to the best gym in the world, American Top Team. I hope it’s (Magomed) Magomedov, because he’s been running his mouth on me. I hope the Russian’s crazy enough to fight me in my hometown.” On Raufeon Stots: “I hate that motherf-cker. I’ll always hate that motherf-cker.” * * * * * Levan Chokheli, following his win: “The fight went the way that I wanted. That was my plan, to control every round and smash this guy. Punching, kicking, body kick, high kick. I had a lot of stuff land. I took him down, ground-and-pound. That was my plan; that was my game. “Everything was controlled from me. Striking, control. The guy only tried cage control, and I think cage control was mine with the punching. That guy only tried to control, but the points were mine. “When I touched him the first time, I thought that was my fight, 100 percent. I think the third round is my easy round, because when I get a little bit tired, I don’t fight with emotion. “I was in the top 10, but they changed it. But now, I know I’m going to be in the top 10, guaranteed. I want to fight with Neiman Gracie and (Michael Page). I know they’re high in the rankings, all the respect to them, but I want to fight them. “I was ready to fight three rounds with high intensity. When I thought I could take him down, I could take him down 100 times. I don’t get tired. I am a fighter. I have knowledge; my mind is the best skill that I have. “After he won (his last fight), he called me out and said ‘I’m gonna knock him out.’ No, you can’t win against me. You can’t knock me out. You can’t win one round against me. I told him, ‘You can’t knock me out,’ and that was really a test for me.” Bellator 294 results include: MAIN CARD PRELIMINARY CARD
