Jena Bishop Rallies Past Liz Carmouche to Win PFL Flyweight Gold

Jena Bishop won her rematch with Liz Carmouche and a vacant title on the same night. Headlining PFL Chicago 2 at Wintrust Arena, the 12-3 flyweight outpointed Liz Carmouche over five rounds to capture the vacant PFL women's flyweight championship. All three official judges scored the contest 48-47 for Bishop.

Carmouche had stopped Bishop in the third round at the PFL World Tournament Finals in August 2025. Bishop had since maintained that the stoppage was premature and vowed to avenge the loss.

The first round

Carmouche, now 26-9, hurt Bishop with punches early and controlled the rest of the opening frame with ground-and-pound. Unofficial scorers at cageside gave her the round 10-8, but none of the three official judges scored it 10-8.

Bishop recovered and, from the second through the fourth round, used her grappling to neutralize Carmouche for long stretches. Carmouche defended takedowns and submission attempts and continued to land strikes when the fight was standing. In the fifth Bishop put Carmouche on the mat and chased a rear-naked choke, but the former title challenger survived to the final horn.

Khizriev stays unbeaten, Khamidov wins by knockout

The featherweight co-main event was another rematch. Timur Khizriev had beaten Gabriel Braga by split decision in 2024, a fight Braga believed he won. This time Braga hurt the unbeaten Russian with a left hook in the first and dropped him twice in the second, yet Khizriev recovered and both men finished bloodied. One judge scored it 29-28 for Braga, the other two had it 29-28 for Khizriev, who moved to 19-0 with a second split-decision win over the Brazilian.

Elsewhere on the card, bantamweight Sarvarjon Khamidov improved to 18-1 by knocking out Rafael do Nascimento in 1:49 with a short left hook and hammerfists. Kevin Pease submitted Cassio Barao in the first round to stay unbeaten at 9-0, Shannon Clark took damage in the first round and stopped Lucero Acosta in the third, and Levan Khabalaev stopped short-notice replacement Brock Hamer in 61 seconds.