Liz Carmouche vs. DeAnna Bennett 2: Fight card, odds, start time, how to watch

Liz Carmouche lost her first shot at a major MMA championship all the way back in March 2011. Other championship opportunities resulted in losses in February 2013 and August 2019 before Carmouche finally captured gold in April 2022, beating Juliana Velasquez for the Bellator flyweight championship. On Friday night, Carmouche steps into the cage to make her second defense of her title in the main event of Bellator 294.

A familiar foe will be standing across the cage from Carmouche in the form of DeAnna Bennett. The two women clashed at Bellator 246 in September 2020, a fight that marked the promotional debut for both fighters. While Bennett had some brief moments of success, Carmouche largely controlled the fight before sinking in a rear-naked choke in the third round.

Bennett has won three fights since that defeat, though admittedly not against a murderer's row of opponents. She has twice defeated Justine Kish and also picked up a win over Alejandra Lara. Kish and Lara are a combined 5-12 since 2017. Wins are wins, however, and Bennett had managed to secure a major opportunity before derailing her chance to become world champion by failing to make weight.

Bennett badly missed weight for her first fight with Carmouche and also missed weight against Lara. On Friday, Bennett again missed weight, coming in two pounds over the 125-pound limit. She has now missed weight for three of her five fights in the Bellator cage.

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Carmouche has been perfect inside the Bellator cage, compiling five straight wins since joining the promotion. Despite fighting many of the best the promotion has to offer, she has also finished four of those five fights by either submission or TKO.

Carmouche's win over Velasquez -- and successful defense in the rematch -- were the culmination of a long journey to championship gold. In 2011, Carmouche came up short in a fight with Marloes Coenen for the Strikeforce bantamweight title. She was also in the first women's bout in UFC history, losing to Ronda Rousey for the bantamweight title at UFC 157 in February 2013. Her final UFC title shot came in April 2022 when she lost to Valentina Shevchenko for the flyweight title.

According to a Bellator statement, Carmouche is still technically defending her status as champion and the belt will become vacant if Bennett manages to get the win.

"DeAnna Bennett weighed in at 127 pounds and missed weight for her bout against Liz Carmouche for the Bellator flyweight title," the statement read. "Carmouche has chosen to keep her title on the line, meaning if she loses the fight, the title will become vacant."

After more than a decade of chasing gold while facing some of the biggest names in the history of the sport and being in historic fights, Carmouche finally has her prize and is a sizeable favorite to remain atop the division on Friday night.

Bellator 294 fight card, odds

Prediction

No disrespect to Bennett, but her resume should not be spoken of alongside Carmouche. Even just in terms of Bellator performances, Carmouche has two stoppage wins over Velasquez, a submission of Bennett, a 35-second TKO over Kana Watanabe and a decision win over Vanessa Porto. Bennett has decision wins over Kish and Lara. Dating back to 2016, Carmouche is 8-2, while Bennett is 5-7-1.

While anything can happen in any given fight, sometimes making a prediction is as simple as picking the better fighter who has had the most success against the better level of competition. That's the case with Carmouche vs. Bennett. Pick: Liz Carmouche via Sub2