There’s nothing like the threat of unemployment to make you fight harder.
Bellator women’s flyweight Ilima Macfarlane has worked at a steakhouse to support herself while pursuing a professional MMA career.
But recently, she told her boss she’s making a change.
“If I win my fight, then I’m not coming back,” MacFarlane (4-0 MMA, 3-0 BMMA), who meets Emily Ducote (4-1 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) on the Spike-televised main card of Saturday’s Bellator 167 event, told MMAjunkie.
MacFarlane has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego State University, but she decided to pursue fighting rather than live a 9-to-5 life.
Because you’ve got to eat, she took jobs that allowed her to pursue her passion, which led her to waiting tables. Her managers encouraged her, black eyes and all.
But after she returned to the steakhouse on the heels of her fourth professional victory, a second-round submission win over Rebecca Ruth at Bellator 157 (watch it above), MacFarlane had a realization.
“I was kind of miserable,” she said. “All I wanted to do was be at the gym.”
When she got the call to fight Ducote at Bellator 167, she “sort of quit,” telling managers she was headed to fight camp and might never be back.
They took it pretty well.
“They want to see me again, but they also don’t want me to lose,” MacFarlane said. “I want to leave on good terms, so just in case I do need a job when I get back, it will be there for me.”
She’s already calculated that if she beats Ducote in Saturday’s Spike-televised co-headliner at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Okla., she’ll make enough to support herself.
Of course, she’ll have to keep winning to make that stick. At 26, she’s given herself four years before she pursues a career and starts a family.
Ducote is no easy task, either. MacFarlane estimates it will be her toughest challenge to date.
“She’s a collegiate level wrestler,” MacFarlane said. “She’s a blue belt in jiu-jitsu, so she has a solid ground game. She’s finished her last two opponents. This girl is frickin’ well-rounded and a beast. Stylistically, she’s my hardest opponent to date because she’s so well-rounded and our styles are so similar.”
A title would certainly help MacFarlane command bigger purses. But to date, Bellator hasn’t announced when a belt will be up for grabs in the women’s 125-pound division.
When they do, she’s made it known she’d like to fight – and, somehow, make out with – another promising up-and-comer, Anastasia Yankova. The promotion has also signed several tough vets, Colleen Schneider among them.
MacFarlane is open to any fight Bellator has to offer. Anything to keep her busy – and away from a desk.
For more on Bellator 167, check out the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.
view original article >>