Juliana Velasquez and the Quest for Redemption

Juliana Velasquez spent the last seven months gathering intelligence on an opponent with whom she has become keenly acquainted.

The Team Nogueira mainstay will seek to reclaim the undisputed Bellator MMA women’s flyweight championship when her rematch with Liz Carmouche serves as the Bellator 289 co-main event on Friday at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Carmouche dethroned the previously unbeaten Brazilian judoka with a volley of elbows in the fourth round of their Bellator 278 pairing on April 22. Afterward, Velasquez filed a protest with the Hawaii State Boxing Commission, citing her belief that referee Mike Beltran had pulled the plug on the bout too quickly. “We at least wished for a no contest,” she told Sherdog.com. “We had a letter from [former referee] John McCarthy supporting our position.” The appeal was denied.

“I’m not going to cry over spilled milk,” Velasquez told Sherdog.com. “I’m looking ahead. Since that night, we already felt a rematch was likely to happen. I immediately got back to training specifically for Liz. I may no longer be undefeated in MMA, but I had already lost judo matches. In judo, we face off several times in one day. If I lost, I had to recover quickly to be able to fight again. That’s how I live my life. I keep my head held high. I admit I made a mistake in my last fight. It won’t happen again.”

Neither woman has fought since. Carmouche will enter her first title defense on the strength of a four-fight winning streak that has shielded her from the sting of defeat for more than 1,200 days. Velasquez plans to rework the math. She put any personal feelings aside, choosing instead to focus on the business end of the equation.

“In every fight, I train to win,” Velasquez said. “The focus is to get a knockout or a submission, but I’m ready for whatever happens. In MMA, you can knock somebody out, submit them or win by points. I’m ready to do any of the three. I’m not looking for payback. I’m simply going to be Juliana 2.0 turbo-charged. All my training sessions are [mapped out] so I can get a finish. That’s how I’ve trained my entire life.”

Velasquez, 36, has secured three of her seven Bellator victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission. However, she has not produced a finish since she buried Kristina Williams with punches in the second round of their Bellator 224 encounter in 2019. Despite the fact that she has entered her mid-30s, Velasquez believes she still has what it takes to compete at the highest levels of the Bellator women’s flyweight division and perhaps beyond.

“My future plans are to keep fighting in my weight class,” she said. “If Bellator adds a bantamweight class, I’d like to fight for that title, too. I love challenges. I’m not thinking of retiring. If my body allows, I’d like to keep fighting for another four or five years. I’ll just keep getting better, so I can fight better.”