How MMA pioneer Liz Carmouche, who once fought Ronda Rousey in UFC, found an escape in Tennessee
GALLATIN – When Liz Carmouche wakes up in the morning, she walks outside to horses greeting her at the front door.
Soon after she’s joined by a host of sheep, chickens, dogs and more, waiting to be fed as the sun steadily rises over her ranch, tucked away 30 miles northeast of Nashville.
It’s not exactly the typical routine for a world championship winning mixed martial arts fighter.
But just over two years ago, Carmouche — winner of the 2025 PFL women’s flyweight tournament — and her family made the move from San Diego for a chance embrace the rural way of life.
“Every time I come home I get to have the freedom of just being with my family. I get to be the dumb person that knows nothing about horses and learn something new,” Carmouche said. “I can train when I want to, but I get to have fun and just embrace just having all the green. And so it’s nice to be able to have the escape here away from fight camp and have a complete disconnect.”
Born in Louisiana but raised in Okinawa, Japan, the country lifestyle is new to Carmouche, but the mixed martial arts pioneer has embraced it alongside her wife Braelyn, a longtime horse trainer and rescuer.
“I know that my wife says something like, ‘Hey, I was thinking about this,’ and then I come home and … there’s a new sheep that she rescued. There’s a new horse she rescued,” Carmouche said. “I have no idea where she gets these animals. She won’t tell me, just magically, they show up and there’s a new mouth to feed that needs to be nurtured back to health and back on their feet.”
Carmouche, 41, is currently soaking in some well-earned time away from the fighting cage, coming off a five-month long tournament run which saw her emerge atop PFL’s flyweight division and claim the $500,000 prize.
It was another addition to an increasingly sterling resume, which has seen Carmouche twice challenge for UFC titles while also reigning as Bellator’s last women’s flyweight champion.
Carmouche never envisioned reaching these heights.
A Marine Corps veteran, she first began training in combat sports at the end of her third tour to Iraq, using what limited resources were available to teach herself.
Returning to the United States at the age of 26, she continued her training in San Diego while attending school, with goals of starting on the amateur circuit.
Carmouche makes history with UFC vs Ronda Rousey
A professional bout remained more a pipe dream than achievable reality.
But Carmouche never said no to an opportunity, and after one amateur fight she turned pro. By her fourth fight she was competing with Strikeforce, the pre-eminent promotion for women’s MMA.
At the time the UFC had never held a women’s fight, but after two years as a professional, Carmouche received a call which would help shape the future of her sport.
She was offered the opportunity to face Ronda Rousey for the UFC women’s bantamweight title in the promotion’s first-ever women’s fight.
“I was super excited because I think a lot of women had the dream, ‘Oh, we’d love to fight in the UFC.’ At that point, that was the best you could get. That was the organization you wanted to be a part of,” Carmouche said. “So an opportunity to do that would mean starting history, being something new.
“So when I got that phone call, I was in disbelief.”
The event garnered unprecedented levels of attention for female fighters, and while Carmouche lost to Rousey, the noise surrounding fight week is something she woudn’t forget.
“It was electrifying … the electric energy of everyone there and being able to feel their enthusiasm, it made your hair stand up,” Carmouche said. “It was exciting and just that energy is also exhausting, because there’s so much there. But it was cool just to do something that nobody else had ever done.”
Carmouche is still competing at the highest level a decade later. After claiming the PFL title in August, she’s now eyeing a bout against one of the top women’s fighters in the world Dakota Ditcheva. However, the family is leaving Tennessee.
There are limited opportunities to train in Tennessee. So Carmouche worked out in both San Diego and Virginia Beach for the 2025 world tournament. That led to months away from home over the course of three fight camps.
“It’s definitely sad leaving,” Carmouche said. “I feel like we’ve done a lot here and definitely fulfilled some dreams that … I’ve now pictured being larger. That because of this, this allowed me to dream bigger … but I also know that there are other possibilities and just because you have to close a chapter of life doesn’t mean the next one isn’t going to be better than the last.”
Harrison Campbell covers combat sports for The Tennessean and high school sports for The Daily Herald. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @hccamp.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: UFC pioneer Liz Carmouche embraces rural lifestyle in Tennessee