Former Bellator women’s flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane is once again fighting at home this Saturday at Bellator 295 — but fighting in Hawaii is no longer as stressful for “The Iliminator” as it once was.
“I’m at the point of my career where it’s fine. It used to be high-pressure, when I had the belt and I felt like I needed to win, I needed to defend it in Hawaii, and the cards being tentpole events. But I think getting the loss out of the way last year to Justine Kish definitely has taken a lot of the pressure off of me moving forward,” Macfarlane (12-2) told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview. “Because I always thought that was the worst thing that could happen, with me losing in Hawaii, and it happened— and it wasn’t the worst thing ever. It was totally fine. People didn’t care, it didn’t affect me or my loved ones.”
“I think after experiencing that, there’s not a lot of pressure. I look forward to fighting at home, she added.
Macfarlane’s reign as women’s flyweight champion in Bellator lasted three years and four title defenses, a period which saw her become one of the promotion’s biggest homegrown stars. After losing her belt to Juliana Velasquez in 2020, she took an extended break, then dropped a follow-up fight to Kish at home in Hawaii last year.
Things were looking bleak, but a fight with Bruna Ellen last August saw Macfarlane bounce back, winning a unanimous decision. That fight was not without its own concerns, however.
“Even though I got the win against Bruna Ellen, that fight I missed weight, which has never happened before, first time in my career. So it’s almost like I suffered two back-to-back losses,” said Macfarlane, whose thoughts following the fight were less about the win and more about what was going on with her health and body.
Macfarlane had injured her neck early in the Kish fight, which led to a trip to the ER. Compounding that were the concerns following the Ellen fight, where her body was shutting down during her weight cut. It led Macfarlane to question “is this really what I want to do, putting my body on the line?” The secondary question was “how much longer can I do that?”
“Those were the two biggest takeaways,” she added, “which was really getting my health back on track.”
Things are a little better for Macfarlane these days. She’s been working with a Naturopathic doctor who has helped get her hormones under control. There are still concerns, however. “Really my issue is, every time I do a weight cut, I’m also significantly reducing my chances of being a mommy. Which is something that’s very important to me.”
“I have to kind of come to terms with things like ‘how much longer can I fight?’ versus ‘am I ready to move on to the next stage of my life?'”
Yet ahead of her Bellator 295 fight with Kana Watanabe, “everything is locked in, dialed in right now,” said Macfarlane. “I feel good for this fight, the weight is exactly where I need to it be.”
Macfarlane also appears enthused about the stylistic match-up with the Japanese flyweight. “Amazing judo, amazing takedowns. Not really submission-based though, she’s not a very offensive grappler. But great defenses though, she’s very hard to submit. In fact she’s never been submitted before. So I think that this is a really interesting match-up, it’s two of the two grapplers in the division, albeit we have very different grappling styles. But yeah, I think that this, stylistically, is very interesting.”
Around the time of the Ellen fight, Macfarlane had expressed a desire to go on one more run at the title, before potentially retiring. With the obvious concern over her chances at motherhood, that plan is somewhat up in the air.
“I think it really depends on this fight. If I win this fight than obviously there’s going to be a title shot, at least that’s what I assume,” Macfarlane suggested. “I unofficially say that this is the title elimination fight, and the winner gets the winner of Friday night’s card [Liz Carmouche vs. DeAnna Bennett].”
Reiterating that “it really depends what happens in this fight,” Macfarlane added that “if I emerge healthy and victorious, let’s keep it moving, let’s go for that title one more time, and then think about retiring. But if I lose or something happens like an injury or something, then I’ll probably have to take a step back.”
Watch our full interview with Bellator 295 co-headliner Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, who faces Kana Watanabe in the card’s co-main event this Saturday, April 22, 2023 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii.
