Ilima-Lei MacFarlane News

Cole Shelton - December 11, 2019

Ilima-Lei MacFarlane is not happy about how the way the UFC released her friend and teammate Liz Carmouche. The two-time UFC title challenger Carmouche was released while she was in Washington D.C. doing promotional work for the company.

Mike Pendleton - October 3, 2019

Bellator MMA is headed back to Hawaii, and they’re bringing two of their bright young stars with them. KHON2 in Hawaii was first to report that Bellator will be returning to Hawaii on December 21st at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Oahu, Hawaii. The card will feature Bellator’s flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane who will attempt to defend her flyweight title against Kate Jackson who has a 11-3-1 record in her professional career, and is also a former competitor of The Ultimate Fighter Season 23. Jackson is riding a two fight winning streak and is 3-1 since joining Bellator.

Tom Taylor - September 13, 2019

Bellator flyweight champion Ilima Lei-MacFarlane is featured in the official music video for the new song Don’t Call Me Angel by pop stars Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey. In the video for this song, which will serve as the lead single on the soundtrack for the new Charlie’s Angels movie, MacFarlane can be seen walloping Cyrus with a wrecking ball of a right hand.

Mike Heck - August 12, 2019

While many believe that current UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko may be unbeatable at this point, Bellator women’s 125-pound champ Ilima-Lei Macfarlane begs to differ. Shevchenko successfully defended her title against Liz Carmouche over the weekend in the main event of UFC Uruguay via unanimous decision in a fight that was never in question.

Drake Riggs - April 27, 2019

The first of Bellator 220’s two title fights went down within the always fun flyweight division as the undefeated champ, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane took on the hungry challenger, Veta Arteaga. Arteaga pushes the action instantly but Macfarlane stops the forward momentum with a single leg attempt that takes them to the cage. Arteaga tries to land what she can in tight but Macfarlane eventually gets the action down before Arteaga finds a sprawl to better her position and get back up. Against the fence again they go. Macfarlane pulls her away and gets the takedown. She’s now on Arteaga’s back but gets thrown off fairly quickly. Now working from the bottom, an armbar turns to an ankle lock attempt with Arteaga throwing body punches the whole time. Arteaga stands up with Macfarlane still on her leg. Macfarlane lets go, up to the feet they go. Arteaga continues to be relentless with her attack. She gets Macfarlane to the cage now where she lands knees to the body. The two break and stand in the center. Round ends after Arteaga stops a takedown.

Drake Riggs - April 26, 2019

Often times when fighters are undefeated, they can understandably be arrogant and perhaps overly confident. The same can be said for champions. So when mixing the two, it’s rare to see that zero stay a zero for all too long. However, despite being both undefeated and a champion, these descriptions wouldn’t be fitting for Bellator’s first and only flyweight queen, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane. Similarly, like another undefeated champion in Virna Jandiroba who is also fighting this weekend, Macfarlane manages to stay very grounded and humble on her journey although many others in her position wouldn’t be. And that she attributes to her realistic view of the MMA landscape after having seen others fall before her.

Mike Straus - April 24, 2019

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) isn’t the only show streaming live Saturday night as Bellator 220 will go head to head with the MMA juggernaut. While Bellator has a habit of filling up the undercard with local fighters to help move ticket sales, that often times affects the quality of fights the fans get. There’s no denying the strength of the five-fight main card that will stream live via DAZN. However, the prelims fall a bit short of what one would expect from a card of this magnitude.

Cole Shelton - April 23, 2019

There is no question the emotions were running high for Ilima-Lei MacFarlane’s last fight. MacFarlane got to defend her Bellator flyweight title at home in Hawaii where she defeated Valerie Letourneau in the third-round by submission. The win capped off an emotional fight week for MacFarlane. Now, she is set for yet another title defense this Saturday when she takes on Veta Arteaga at Bellator 220 in San Jose, California. Although Hawaii was MacFarlane’s real homecoming, she lives and trains in California which makes this yet another fight ‘at home’.

Chris Taylor - December 15, 2018

Hawaii’s Ilima-Lei Macfarlane put her Bellator women’s flyweight title on the line against Valerie Letourneau in tonight’s Bellator 213 main event in Honolulu. Macfarlane enters tonight’s main event sporting a perfect professional record of 8-0. The Hawaiian‘s most recent win came via submission over Alejandra Lara at Bellator 201 this past June in California.

Cole Shelton - November 16, 2018

Ilima-Lei MacFarlane is quickly emerging as one of Bellator’s biggest stars. The current women’s flyweight champion is set to defend her title for the second time against Valerie Letourneau on December 15.

Drake Riggs - September 18, 2018

Bellator has officially won the race to Hawaii as their first event in the aloha state will take place on December 15 for Bellator 210. There was only one choice for a headliner when it came to the event and that was Bellator’s biggest Hawaiian star and just one of their biggest stars in general, their flyweight champion “The Ilimanator” Ilima-Lei Macfarlane.

Tom Taylor - September 12, 2018

According to a report from Rob DeMello of KHON 2, Bellator MMA is headed to Hawaii. The promotion is expected to take over Honolulu’s Neal S. Blaisdell Center on December 15. The card will be headlined by a Bellator women’s flyweight title fight between Hawaiian champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane and former UFC strawweight title challenger Valérie Létourneau. The promotion has yet to officially announce this card, but that official announcement could be coming as early as today.