Jena Bishop Upsets Liz Carmouche to Win PFL Flyweight Title in Chicago

Championship fights are supposed to reward the fighter who survives the worst moment. Jena Bishop survived hers in the first five minutes in Chicago, then spent the next twenty proving she had learned more from losing to Liz Carmouche than Carmouche had learned from winning. In the PFL Chicago main event, Bishop (12-3) proved the oddsmakers wrong when she upset Liz Carmouche (26-9) by unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47) to win title gold for the first time, MMA Junkie reported. The event took place at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, with the main card broadcast on ESPN2.

This was a rematch with a grudge baked in. Carmouche, a former Bellator champion and 2025 PFL World Tournament winner, knocked Bishop out when they met last year, according to the reports of the fight, and she entered the rematch as the betting favorite. For one round on Friday night, it looked like a repeat was loading.

Five minutes from over

Carmouche nearly ended the fight in Round 1. She hurt Bishop with a barrage of punches and was unwilling to let her off the hook until the end-of-round horn made her do so, MMA Junkie reported. A big bomb right at the end of the round nearly put Bishop out, but she lived to see a second round. Sherdog reported Carmouche rocked Bishop with punches in the first and dominated the rest of the round with ground-and-pound, earning 10-8 scores from all three unofficial Sherdog scorers. The official judges, notably, did not award a 10-8 first round — and in a fight decided by a single point on every card, that turned out to be the whole ballgame.

The fight became more even in Round 2. Bishop used her signature jiu-jitsu to weather Carmouche’s storm and control the fight, while Carmouche found more success on the feet, seemingly hurting Bishop on multiple occasions with her boxing and clinch knees to the body, MMA Junkie reported. Then came Round 3, the turning point: Bishop shifted into next gear, dragged Carmouche to the canvas and eventually shifted to the back, working for a rear-naked choke and slowly squeezing and cranking, according to MMA Junkie. Carmouche toughed it out and somehow survived, because that is what Carmouche does. But the fight had changed addresses. It now lived where Bishop wanted it.

The championship rounds

Carmouche came back stronger in Round 4 and appeared to be the fresher fighter, though both women were tired, MMA Junkie reported. Potentially tied on the judges’ scorecards entering Round 5, Carmouche found a home for her boxing but got overzealous and wild, and was taken down by Bishop; a few seconds later, Bishop was on Carmouche’s back with the body lock, working on multiple rear-naked choke submission attempts, according to MMA Junkie. She never found the tap. She didn’t need it. All three judges scored the fight 48-47 for Bishop, Sherdog confirmed, and a career defined by near-misses suddenly had a belt at the end of it.

“I love fighting in Chicago,” Bishop said after the fight. “I fought here twice this year, and had a great outcome both times. It’s close to home, so I get my family, and I love the city.” She added that winning the title was particularly special: “It feels good to add another world title to my résumé. I think this one means a little bit more than what I’ve done in the past, so I’m really, really excited.” Bishop also disclosed in a backstage interview that she had torn an adductor and an abdominal muscle and competed while managing the injuries — her own account, not accompanied by a medical release, but the kind of detail that makes surviving that first round look even more improbable.

A co-main event Chicago booed

If the main event was a feel-good upset, the co-main was the night’s argument. Timur Khizriev (19-0) edged Gabriel Braga by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28), MMA Weekly reported in its official results. But Braga hurt Khizriev with a left hook in the first, then dropped him twice with punches in the second, and all three unofficial Sherdog scorers favored Braga 29-28, according to Sherdog. One official judge agreed, but the other two scored it 29-28 for Khizriev, giving him another split decision victory, Sherdog reported. It was also Khizriev’s first fight since he was shot five times by two masked attackers in Makhachkala, Dagestan in July 2025, an incident that came eight months after his last professional outing in November 2024, when he won the PFL featherweight tournament — context that makes his simply being in the cage remarkable, even if the scorecards will be debated all week.

The rest of the main card delivered finishes. Sarvarjon Khamidov strengthened his case for a PFL bantamweight title shot by knocking out Rafael do Nascimento in the first round at 1:49 of Round 1, dropping him with a short left hook and following with hammerfists, Sherdog and MMA Junkie both reported. Oualy Tandia earned a unanimous decision over J.P. Saint Louis to kick off the main card, and the prelims were a stoppage parade: first-round finishes for Eliezer Kubanza, Kevin Pease, Gamid Khizriev, Cobey Fehr and Levan Khabalaev, plus a second-round TKO for former champion Emiliano Sordi over Abraham Bably, according to the official results reported by MMA Junkie and MMA Weekly.

The shadow in the cage: Dakota Ditcheva

Bishop, 40, has lined herself up for a highly-anticipated showdown with PFL star Dakota Ditcheva (16-0), who revealed Friday she has received medical clearance and will be able to challenge for the title in early 2027, MMA Junkie reported. Bishop and Ditcheva squared off in the cage after the decision. The two have fought once before, in August 2024, when Ditcheva defeated Bishop by first-round knockout, according to MMA Junkie. Ditcheva, the former champion who vacated the title due to injury, said she has been green lit for full-contact training after breaking both of her hands in her last outing, a decision win over Denise Kieholtz in July.

“Now that I’ve been cleared, I want to be the next person to fight for [the belt],” Ditcheva said. “I know everyone calls me a prima donna, but if I’m not next in line, I might kick up a fuss a little bit. But I kind of understand at the same time — I do keep injuring myself.” She added: “I’m ready to go, February or March I would love to get in and challenge someone for the belt.” The storyline writes itself: Ditcheva knocked Bishop out in the first round in 2024, Bishop has now won three straight and holds the belt Ditcheva never lost in the cage, and early 2027 cannot come fast enough. For more fight coverage and everything else from a packed sports weekend, visit our sports front and the newsroom.