Carmouche and Bishop Meet Again With a Belt on the Line

Liz Carmouche vs Jena Bishop II headlines PFL Chicago on Friday, October 16, and this time there is a belt involved. When the two met in the 2025 World Tournament final, Carmouche walked out with the win. Now the winner walks out as the first women's flyweight world champion in PFL history.

The first women's flyweight world championship in PFL history gets decided in Chicago. Carmouche and Bishop will settle it between them. Last year they met with a tournament at stake, and Carmouche won it by third round stoppage. Bishop has not lost since.

Liz Carmouche fights out of San Diego and trains at The Arena, and she enters as the No. 2 ranked women's flyweight on the PFL roster. She spent five years in the Marine Corps before turning professional, and she made history in the first women's fight the UFC ever held, against Ronda Rousey. She captured the Bellator women's flyweight world title and defended it three times before joining PFL, where she won the 2025 World Tournament at women's flyweight. Her game starts with grappling, chaining wrestling into top position and working short strikes from close range, though she has closed fights standing as well. She arrives off a second round guillotine choke against Viviane Araujo.

WATCH: Women's Flyweight Title Decider, Carmouche v Bishop, Full Fight, PFL WT 9 2025

Jena Bishop is the No. 4 ranked women's flyweight in PFL and one of the most credentialed grapplers in the sport. She is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, a former IBJJF No Gi World Champion and an ADCC World Championships competitor for the United States. Submissions are the core of her resume and she hunts them from everywhere, off her back, out of the clinch and in transition. She came closer than anyone to finishing Carmouche, threatening an armbar and then a triangle choke in the second round before Carmouche broke free and won by stoppage in the third. Her two most recent wins both finished inside the opening round, one by rear naked choke and one by armbar.

WATCH: First Round Stoppage, Bishop v Tsertsvadze

This is a grappler against a grappler, and the first fight showed how thin the margin is. Carmouche wants to close distance, tie up and work from top position where her pressure and short strikes take over. Bishop wants the fight on the mat on her own terms, where every scramble turns into a submission entry. Their first meeting turned on that exact tension, with Bishop threatening from the bottom in the second round before Carmouche landed the shot that ended it in the third. Whoever decides where the grappling happens decides the fight.

For Carmouche, a win makes her a world champion in a second organization and puts her at the top of a division she has been chasing for two years. For Bishop, a win avenges the loss that cost her PFL gold and delivers the first world title of her career. One of them leaves Chicago as the first champion this division has ever had.

PFL Chicago takes place on Friday, October 16 at Wintrust Arena, with the main card starting at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Tickets are on sale now at pfl.info/chicago