Liz Carmouche didn’t leave a single strand to chance. At Thursday’s weigh-ins for PFL Chicago, the 42-year-old had her head shaved right before stepping on the scale, and she registered exactly 125 pounds, the limit for her vacant PFL women’s flyweight title rematch with Jena Bishop. MMA Fighting posted the haircut footage, and AOL ran with the story too. Bishop came in at 124.6, so the main event went ahead as planned.
It went ahead, and then it got away from her. Bishop won a unanimous decision Friday night at Wintrust Arena, taking all three cards 48-47 to claim her first title.
A heavy favorite with a long résumé
Carmouche walked in as a heavy favorite, and on paper it made sense. The former long-reigning Bellator flyweight champion and one-time UFC title challenger had won four straight and 13 of her past 14, finishing three of those last four, including former UFC ranked contender Viviane Araujo in June. MMA Fighting had her at No. 14 in its pound-for-pound rankings. She’d also already handled Bishop once, knocking her out at PFL Charlotte in August 2025 to win the flyweight tournament. Bishop arrived having won four of her past five.
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How it unfolded
Round 1 looked like Charlotte all over again. Carmouche hurt Bishop and chased the finish, and ESPN described Bishop as nearly finished in the opening frame. She survived it. By the second, Carmouche was fading badly, and MMA Fighting’s report pointed to the weight cut as the likely culprit. Bishop took over in the third, climbing to back mount and hunting chokes. Then Bishop’s own tank ran dry in the fourth, and Carmouche sprawled her way to top position and did real damage.
That left a fifth round with the belt hanging on it, and Carmouche actually looked like the fresher fighter coming out. Then she got reckless. Bishop timed a takedown, took the back and spent most of the round working a rear-naked choke, briefly sinking it in before Carmouche fought it off. Carmouche never shook her loose.
Jed Meshew didn’t soften it on X: “Liz Carmouche with some of the worst fight IQ you’ll ever see to lose the title. 34 professional fights and sometimes you still make rookie mistakes.”
After the decision, Dakota Ditcheva walked into the SmartCage to face off with the new champ. Ditcheva stopped Bishop by TKO in 2024, and the two are set to rematch for the title sometime next year.
Quick take
The clippers on the scale made for a great clip, but they were also a flare telling everyone how thin the margin was, and Round 2 confirmed it. What stings is that Carmouche fought through the drained middle rounds, won the fourth the hard way and still came out for the fifth with more in the tank than Bishop. Then she handed over her back on one loose exchange. Credit Bishop for eating that first round and refusing to go away. She gets Ditcheva next year, and she’ll walk into that one as a champion instead of a footnote to Carmouche’s highlight reel.
