Veteran Liz Carmouche is ready to make a splash in her new promotional home with Bellator after a series of “weird” changes with UFC ownership spelled the end of her octagon tenure.
Carmouche, a one-time UFC bantamweight title challenger, felt a shift when the promotion was acquired in 2016 by entertainment giant WME-IMG, resulting in a series of interactions that made her feel unwelcome.
When a pink slip came during a PR gig, Carmouche was “in some ways shocked, and in other ways, not at all.”
“When the new ownership took over, there were just a lot of changes that were just really weird to me and didn’t make sense,” she said at a virtual media day for her promotional debut against DeAnna Bennett on Saturday at Bellator 246, which takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.