Liz Carmouche's Self-Motivation

Fighters only get one shot! Watch the PFL World Tournament LIVE Friday, April 11 at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Liz Carmouche has been a trailblazer at nearly every step of her career, and now she’s looking at her own checklist. After being part of the Professional Fighters League women’s flyweight season last year and coming up short, the former Bellator MMA flyweight champ is not only out for revenge but out to achieve some personal goals in the 2025 World Tournament.

Speaking to Sherdog, Carmouche opened up on what motivated her to join this tournament, the things she wants to accomplish this year and how she feels after the PFL moved from a regular season format into a tournament.

After taking part in one year of the PFL’s old regular season points format, Carmouche, a longtime veteran of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator, said she’s excited for the tournament format, but sees both positives and negatives.

“Some parts of it I’m super excited about,” Carmouche said. “Going out there and knowing we’re going to be able to utilize elbows is one of them, another is knowing we are going to have three fights instead of four like last year. The single elimination, there are no doubts, or outside circumstances, it’s just win and move on. It definitely takes a lot of guesswork out of things, but you could also take serious damage from an elbow or just have an opponent trying to coast, and that could change the dynamic of a fighter.”

Even after winning the Bellator flyweight championship, Carmouche is back with the PFL for no other reason than her own goals. Having already climbed to the mountain top, Carmouche said her biggest motivation for competing in the world tournament this year includes securing finishes she has yet to perform, and just crossing off her own self-made goals.

“I have bucket list finishes with moves I want to land that I think are super cool, things that excite me in practice. Maybe they won’t be exciting to fans, but I think they will be. In my career there have been several things I’ve been able to cross off in fights, and so now I just want to keep going with all of that.”

Having been part of several different promotions during her legendary career, Carmouche said she believes the PFL is needed to help continue the growth of MMA as a sport.

“Absolutely the PFL is needed. They are taking care of their athletes because that’s the entertainment. So having an organization like the PFL that’s looking to take care of fighters financially, give them a guaranteed season, we need a fight organization that’s looking to change the game and adapt to the betterment of their athletes.”

Moving the format to a single-elimination tournament, Carmouche believes fans will buy into the change and bring more attention to the product.

“I’m hoping that fans will be able to buy in with the change. I know so often, in speaking with others not only were the athletes confused with the points system, so were the fans. When you have fans who want to be invested but don’t understand what they are investing into, it’s really difficult for them to follow through. So this change removes all of that and fans know exactly what they’re investing into, and they can follow along knowing what can happen next.”

Taking on Ilara Joanne on April 11, Carmouche keeps it short and sweet for the fans’ expectations: Her bucket list is being marked off. The longtime veteran and trailblazer for women's MMA, isn’t focused on a specific narrative or, but just wants to keep fulfilling special moments in her career.