Bellator women’s flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane has already accomplished a lot inside the cage, but she has a few personal goals she wants to fulfill.
Macfarlane (11-0 MMA, 10-0 BMMA), 30, has defended her title four times since winning it in November 2017 and has yet to be beaten in her career.
She signed a multi-year, multi-fight contract extension with Bellator in February and is looking to finish out her contract, then start a family.
“My plan right now is to finish my contract, my current contract, and then to start having babies after that,” Macfarlane told MMA Junkie. “That’s my plan. But I said that when I was 25, when I first signed. I was like, ‘I’m only going to fight for three years, and then I’m going to be done.’
“Five years later, and I’m still fighting. I said I had wanted babies by 30, but now I’m pushing that date further. So right now, I would like to finish out this contract and then start a family. But again, I’m not going to know until I actually get to that point.”
Every one of Macfarlane’s fights has taken place in the U.S., including a couple in her home state of Hawaii. But before her contract is up, Macfarlane would love to travel abroad and compete in front of new fans.
“I would love to fight overseas,” Macfarlane said. “Hawaii obviously is, but I would love to fight on one of the Europe cards or I’d actually really, really want to do a cross-promotional fight with Rizin and fight in Japan, and I would love to fight in the ring because I just think it’s a challenge and different and that would be really cool.”
