For her first fight of 2016, flyweight prospect Ilima-Lei Macfarlane had the strongest performance of her career yet, when she submitted Amber Tackett in the first round at Bellator 148 in January.
And while Macfarlane is happy with the win, she does wish she could have gotten a bit more cage time in the fight for experience.
“That was pretty much the game plan,” Macfarlane told MMAWeekly.com. “(Tackett) was a southpaw, and I’d never faced a southpaw opponent before, so we kind of wanted to take her down. As far as we knew, she didn’t have any ground game.
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“A win’s a win, and although I would have liked it to have gone a little further, and would have liked it to go into different positions, but I do think I develop the most during camp and during training.”
Macfarlane (2-0) will look to pick up her third straight win for Bellator when she takes on veteran Rebecca Ruth (6-1) in a 125-pound main card bout at Dynamite 2 on Friday in St. Louis, Mo.
“She’s definitely going to be my toughest opponent to date, and ‘Ruthless’ is a perfect nickname for her, because she comes forward, always keeps the pressure on and is not afraid to get hit or throw down,” said Macfarlane of Ruth. “I think that this is really going to be a really good brawl.
“I think that in order to beat her, I have to be the smarter fighter. I have to stick to my game plan and work the outside and try to avoid those power punches. She’s got a good solid wrestling base, but we didn’t really see any submissions or high-level Jiu-Jitsu, so I’m pretty confident that if we do go to the ground, I’ll be able to dominate.”
Macfarlane feels a win over Ruth could be the catalyst towards becoming Bellator’s first ever female flyweight champion.
“She’s hands down my toughest opponent yet, and he has a lot more experience than me, so a win, especially under the Bellator banner, is very important to me,” Macfarlane said. “That would actually make me, in my opinion, the Number One contender for the title.
“I’ve had the most fights with them in the flyweight division. This will be my third fight under the Bellator banner, so this is probably the biggest fight of my career so far. I’m still super-early on into my career, so something like this could catapult me to a title shot.”
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