First Woman to Fight in UFC eyes Hall of Fame after PFL title win

A pioneer of the sport who took on Ronda Rousey in the first-ever women’s fight in UFC history thinks a Hall of Fame induction is due after capturing even more championship gold recently.

Liz Carmouche contended for championships across multiple divisions in the UFC with championship accolades on her resume in both Bellator MMA and, most recently, in PFL. Carmouche’s fight with Ronda Rousey in 2013 was certainly a memorable one, with Carmouche putting Rousey in more danger than she had seen in her prior fights leading into that UFC debut effort.

Carmouche’s recent win over Jena Bishop to capture PFL gold put the former in the same league as Cris Cyborg in terms of women’s MMA fighters who have become two promotion titleholders. The 41-year-old combatant has won twelve of her previous thirteen fights, with the only loss in that stretch coming to Valentina Shevchenko in a UFC flyweight title bid in 2019.

Carmouche was speaking recently with Danny Segura of MMA Junkie, and while touching on this massive win in the PFL flyweight tournament as well as the overall body of work she has put together in her career, Carmouche said [via Bloody Elbow],

“I have done a lot. When you’re caught up in the moment of just trying to evolve as much as possible, prepare for fights, you kind of lose the perspective of some of the things you’ve accomplished. I’m big on not necessarily looking in the past. It’s in those conversations where I do and I go like, oh, holy crap, like maybe I should be in the UFC Hall of Fame or something like that. I certainly hope so.”

“I would love if there was a UFC Hall of Fame I could be a part of. That would be really awesome. Again, just to add some more accolades into things I’ve accomplished.”

UFC Hall of Fame and the women who have been inducted so far

UFC so far has a trifecta of women’s MMA fighters who have been inducted since the inception of the Hall of Fame. The aforementioned Ronda Rousey received this honor after besting Liz Carmouche and going on to notch several UFC bantamweight title defenses in one of the more dominant reigns that title has ever seen.

Amanda Nunes is in the UFC Hall of Fame with a relatively recent induction taking place for the former two-division UFC champion, who is targeting a comeback from retirement to face Kayla Harrison later on this year.

Finally, Joanna Jedrzejczyk is a HOF inductee with an impressive body of work that not only saw her notch multiple strawweight title defenses. But also saw the Polish warrior partake in some of the most exciting fights in the sport’s history.