Carmouche vs. Bishop 2: Liz Looks to Repeat for PFL 125 Gold

Liz Carmouche and Jena Bishop meet again Saturday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, this time with a vacant PFL flyweight belt waiting at the end of it. It's a straight rematch of a 2025 PFL tournament final that Carmouche already won — and she comes in riding a four-fight streak, having gone 13-1 across her last 14 appearances.

Carmouche, the former long-reigning Bellator flyweight queen and a one-time UFC title challenger, currently sits at No. 14 in the MMA Fighting pound-for-pound rankings. That's rarefied air for anyone, let alone a fighter who's been grinding through multiple promotions. Bishop, meanwhile, has pieced together four wins in her last five to force a second crack at the woman who beat her.

The First Fight Still Hangs Over This One

The obvious problem for Bishop is that she already shared a cage with Carmouche and came out on the wrong side of the result. Beating a fighter of Carmouche's pedigree once is hard enough. Doing it on the second try, when that fighter has had months to study the film, is a different mountain entirely.

Carmouche's edge has always been her veteran savvy — the grappling, the positional control, the refusal to panic. Against Bishop the first time, that experience told. The question now is whether Bishop has closed the gap or whether this plays out like a replay with a belt attached.

For Carmouche, a second win here cements her as the clear top dog at 125 pounds in the promotion and gives her a title to show for the streak. At this stage of her career, hardware and ranking points matter more than ever. A loss, by contrast, would sting given she's already proven she's the better fighter on paper.

Khizriev's Unbeaten Run Headlines the Undercard

The co-main event carries its own weight. Undefeated featherweight Timur Khizriev takes on PFL veteran Gabriel Braga, a step-up fight that tests whether Khizriev's perfect record is built on substance or soft matchmaking. Braga's experience inside the PFL system makes him exactly the kind of gatekeeper who exposes hype jobs.

Khizriev staying unbeaten keeps him on the fast track toward the featherweight picture. A stumble against a known quantity like Braga would reset that timeline in a hurry.

Where the Division Goes Next

A Carmouche win locks her in as champion and leaves the division chasing her, with Bishop likely needing a fresh run of results before she earns a third fight. A Bishop upset flips the whole script and immediately sets up a rubber match the promotion would be foolish not to book.

There's also the broader context of a loaded weekend across MMA. Joshua Van, now the UFC flyweight champion at 18-2 after outpointing Alexandre Pantoja, and Alexa Grasso — 18-5-1 and ranked No. 3 at women's flyweight — have both climbed in the latest pound-for-pound ladders. Carmouche's name sitting among that company underlines how seriously the sport takes her résumé.

Elsewhere, Arman Tsarukyan has pulled nearly level with lightweight champ Justin Gaethje in the global rankings. Tsarukyan sits at 24-3 with a first-round knockout of Mauricio Ruffy his latest statement, while Gaethje, 28-5 with 21 knockouts, is fresh off stopping Ilia Topuria in the fourth. That's the standard every title holder gets measured against.

For now, the focus is Chicago, where Carmouche aims to prove the first result was no fluke and Bishop tries to rewrite history. One of them walks out with a belt. The smart money leans on the woman who's already done it once.