SAN JOSE, Calif. – Ilima-Lei Macfarlane didn’t get a chance to speak to Veta Arteaga after their Bellator 220 co-headliner was cut short by a gruesome gash on Arteaga’s forehead.
However, right before the official announcement of Macfarlane’s third-round TKO win, the Bellator flyweight champion got a chance to say something in the challenger’s ear.
“I did say, ‘You got the rematch, girl; let’s do it,’” Macfarlane told reporters, including MMA Junkie, after the DAZN-streamed bout at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif.
Macfarlane’s rematch offer, which she reiterated in her post-fight interview, made sense considering the circumstances; Macfarlane (10-0 MMA, 9-0 BMMA) was, after all, struggling against Arteaga (5-3 MMA, 4-3 BMMA) before the ever-anticlimactic doctor’s stoppage.
But that didn’t make it any less generous. At the end of the day, it was Macfarlane’s perfectly-placed elbow that did the fight-ending damage. And, as a champion, it would certainly be understandable if Macfarlane just took that win and decided to call it a day.
So why didn’t she?
“She deserves it, man,” Macfarlane said. “She’s a warrior. Her face can be split open, you can see the skull, and she’ll still be like, ‘No, I’ll fight.’ I was almost going to be like, ‘If both fighters agree, can we just keep the fight going? How does that work?’ I think she totally deserves it.
“She gave me a freaking good-ass fight. So we’re for sure going to run it back. I think the only thing that will prevent that is an injury of some sort or something.”
Macfarlane, who got to defend her title for a third time and keep her spotless record, was candid in her breakdown of the co-headliner. She knew she was behind on the scorecards going into the third round. She wasn’t necessarily surprised by Arteaga’s striking, which she expected to be good, but was impressed by her wrestling.
Macfarlane realized Arteaga had prepared well for her and has no problem acknowledging her opponent’s – or her corner’s – merits.
“She had really good wrestling defense, and I do like to use the cage a lot,” Macfarlane said. “So when she would hit that rockstar stance super hard and made me really really work for those takedowns, yeah, I got really tired. And then her corner was also kind of messing with my head, because they were like ‘She’s so tired,’ and I was like, ‘Shut up.’ So that was pretty good cornering in there; it was kind of messing with me.
“Even though I am a wrestler, chain wrestling is really difficult, especially grinding and trying to get someone down who has that wide stance. Normally, my corners and I, we don’t even talk about the fights afterward. But immediately after, in the back, I was like, ‘This is what we need to work on. I want to do ‘this’ for preparation for her.’”
But, at the same time, Macfarlane is a self-admitted slow starter. As she sat in her stool heading into the third round, her corners told her to pick it up. She knew what was going on and that it was about finding the right moment and capitalizing on it.
So she did.
“It’s a lot of mental training,” Macfarlane said. “I was down on the scorecards. I was losing this fight, you know? I felt physically tired. I felt like I had adrenaline dump. I was gassed, but I was just like, ‘There’s no way. I have to do something.’ So it was very calculated. That elbow really was calculated.
“I was like, ‘All I need to do is land one good strike from the top,’ because her guard was really strong, actually, so I was like, ‘All I need to do is just land.’ I felt like a shark tonight. I split her head open. She said she was going to knock me out. I’m like, ‘Well, looks like I sent you to the hospital this time, so whatever.'”
Macfarlane is in the process of moving into a new house and, if it all works out, she’s going to have a mortgage to pay. If a doctor’s stoppage win is what helps her do it, she’ll take it. Not to mention, as disappointing as the ending may have been for the crowd and for Arteaga, it may end up working out for the best.
Last December, Macfarlane got to defend her belt against Valerie Letourneau in Bellator’s first trip to her native Hawaii. Bellator president Scott Coker called the event a “magical night,” thanks in big part to Macfarlane’s efforts to engage the local crowd, and talked about possibly making the Hawaiian incursions an annual affair.
If that does end up happening in 2019, Coker probably won’t need to waste too much time looking for a headliner.
“Hawaii would love this,” Macfarlane said. “They love their scrappers, so I know Veta would be popular. The Veta rematch, I know the crowd would love it. The fans would love it.
“So I think that’s actually perfect. I almost feel like this was meant to happen. Because Veta and I were supposed to see each other in an atmosphere like in Hawaii – a historical, monumental place – so I think this was supposed to happen.”
To hear from Macfarlane, check out the video above.
And for complete coverage of Bellator 220, check out the MMA Events section of the site.