Despite the sport of mixed martial arts being “real sh*tty sometimes,” Ilima-Lei Macfarlane admits that she loves it.
The former Bellator MMA women’s flyweight champion was in good spirits following a split decision win over Bruna Ellen at Bellator 284.
“Ehh, I don’t really care if I’m champ again— pfft of course I want to frickin’ retire as champ!” Macfarlane exclaimed jokingly, speaking to members of the media including Cageside Press on Friday. With a touch of sarcasm, she added “No, I want to retire on a losing streak.”
“That’s the ultimate goal, is to frickin’ go for it one last time. Put all my eggs in one basket, and just f*cking go for it,” Macfarlane added. “So again, my ultimate dream retirement fight would of course be in Hawaii, fighting for the belt, against my girl Liz Carmouche.”
Carmouche, a good friend and former training partner of Macfarlane, is someone the ex-champ said she “loves,” calling her a “sister wife.”
“This is just the fight that’s supposed to happen. It’s a full circle kind of fight. Liz was the first person that I encountered when I set foot inside the gym.”
Macfarlane of late has talked about retirement frequently, stating that she plans to hang up the gloves at the end of her current contract. Which has a few more fights on it.
“I believe I have— actually I don’t know. I just know it’s a couple,” Macfarlane told Cageside Press regarding her contract status. “But I don’t know, I have to double check.” Presumably, however, there would be one or two before a potential title shot/retirement fight.
On the subject of Ellen’s late guillotine attempt, Macfarlane admitted that it was tight enough to “ruffle my feathers,” but insisted she would have gone out rather than tapped. What bothered her more was a wardrobe malfunction.
“I was probably more concerned with my ass showing, because I could see it on the big screen,” she said of the third-round sequence, which saw her fight shorts slipping off. “So I was just like of course, the one fight, the one fight that I don’t wear underwear in — and only because I forgot it, not ’cause it was like on purpose, but I forgot my underwear at the hotel room — the one fight, my ass would show in it. So you’re welcome everybody that saw it.”
Watch the full Bellator 284 post-fight media scrum with Ilima-Lei Macfarlane above.
