UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey joins Jena Bishop's camp for Carmouche rematch

Jena Bishop has enlisted UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey as a training partner ahead of her rematch with Liz Carmouche for the inaugural PFL women’s flyweight championship at Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Oct. 16. The Professional Fighters League shared a photo confirming the collaboration.

The bout serves as the main event of PFL Chicago and will crown the promotion’s first women’s flyweight champion — its first new title since the PFL’s merger with Most Valuable Promotions.

The fight is a rematch of last year’s PFL women’s flyweight tournament final, which Carmouche won by stoppage in the third round. Bishop has since bounced back with consecutive victories over Borena Tsertsvadze and Ariane Lipski da Silva, while Carmouche arrives on the back of a submission win over Viviane Araujo in June.

Rousey’s involvement adds a notable layer of history to the matchup. The former UFC bantamweight champion — widely credited with bringing women’s MMA into the mainstream — defeated Carmouche at UFC 157 in February 2013, a bout that served as both the first defence of her UFC title and the promotion’s first-ever women’s fight. Rousey’s experience against the same opponent Bishop now faces makes her an unusually relevant sparring resource.

For Bishop, the rematch represents a chance to avenge the only defeat of her PFL career and claim a title that carries added significance as the first belt introduced under the PFL’s new structure. Carmouche, a veteran of both the UFC and Bellator, brings championship-level experience and the psychological edge of having already stopped Bishop once.