PFL Chicago results: Jena Bishop upsets Liz Carmouche

I picked Liz Carmouche by decision. I got the method right.

Jena Bishop beat Carmouche by unanimous decision on Friday night at Wintrust Arena, 48-47 on all three cards, and won the vacant PFL women's flyweight title at PFL Chicago. Fourteen months after Carmouche knocked her out in the third round in Charlotte, Bishop got on top of her in the second round of the rematch and, round after round, stayed there.

The market did not see it coming. Going into fight night the sportsbook consensus had Carmouche at -388 and Bishop at +287, roughly a one-in-four shot, and it barely moved before the walkouts. The line had opened at -300 on Tuesday and only got longer from there, as far as -406 on Friday. Of the other 11 bouts with a sportsbook line, the favorite won 10. (Odds are information only here, not advice.)

How Bishop flipped the rematch

In my preview I wrote that the case for Bishop was round two of the first fight: if she could get on top again and stay there longer than two minutes, she would have 25 minutes to find the finish she was hunting in Charlotte. She held control for 3:04 in that entire first fight. On Friday she cleared two minutes on top in three separate rounds, and two of those rounds beat the 3:04 on their own.

Here is the bout page data, round by round:

Round one looked like the first fight all over again. Carmouche dropped her and outlanded her 62 to 13. If you had turned the stream off there, my pick would have looked smart.

Then Bishop took her down twice in round two and out-struck her 57 to 18, and the fight turned into the one Bishop wanted. Carmouche controlled her opponent for a total of 1:43 across five rounds, all of it in rounds one and four. Bishop controlled her for 13:10. The body work from the first fight was still there too: 81 of Bishop's 162 strikes landed to the body, against 21 of Carmouche's.

The scores fit that shape. Give Carmouche round one on the knockdown and round four on a 32-27 strike edge with no takedowns landed against her, give Bishop the other three, and you have 48-47. Bishop also closed with her best round: 3:56 of control and seven submission attempts in the fifth. In the third round in Charlotte she landed one strike from 27 thrown. In the fifth round in Chicago she was the one asking all the questions.

She did not get the finish, 11 attempts and none of them closed, and that is the one footnote. At 40, with three straight wins since the knockout, Bishop (now 12-3) does not need one.

Where this leaves Carmouche

Photo: 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment "The Old Guard" / CC0

Carmouche is 42 and 26-9, and nothing about Friday says she has slowed down on the feet. She put Bishop down in the first round and won the fourth standing up. What she could not do was keep the fight there. Bishop completed 4 of 10 takedowns, and once she got on top, Carmouche spent the bulk of three rounds underneath, defending submissions rather than working back to her feet.

Her PFL run since 2024 now reads 6-2, and both losses are decisions: Taila Santos in the 2024 playoffs and now Bishop. That is not a fighter falling off. It is a fighter who was beaten by a better plan on the night. At 1-1, a third fight is the obvious booking, and the case for it is better than most rubber matches: each of them has now won exactly the fight they wanted to have. The question for the PFL is whether a 42-year-old gets the immediate shot or one more fight first. I would give her the shot.

The rest of the main card

Timur Khizriev def. Gabriel Braga, split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28). Second fight, second split decision, same winner. Our technique piece said Braga had to start fast and not leave close rounds lying around. Instead Khizriev, back after 686 days off, outlanded him 52 to 15 in strikes in the first round and finished with a 159 to 69 edge. Braga's case is round two, where he scored both knockdowns of the fight, and one judge bought it. It wasn't a wrestling match this time either: Khizriev landed 2 of 5 takedowns and held control for three seconds. He is 19-0, and the fight deserves its own film session.

Sarvarjon Khamidov def. Rafael do Nascimento, TKO, round 1, 1:49. One knockdown, 15 strikes landed, done. Khamidov closed as a -436 favorite and fought like one. He is 18-1, with two straight wins since his only loss, a decision to Magomed Magomedov in June 2025.

Oualy Tandia def. J.P. Saint Louis, unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28). The most interesting three-round fight on the main card. Saint Louis held more control time overall, 4:42 to Tandia's 3:36, three minutes of it in the second round alone, and the two 29-28 cards reflect that. But Tandia dropped him in the second and then ran away with the third: 46 strikes to 13 and 2 of 2 takedowns. Tandia is 24 and 6-0. At -266 he was expected to win; how he won the last round is the part worth remembering.

Prelims: eight finishes in nine fights

Photo: Rodrigorb90 / CC BY-SA 4.0

The prelims did what the main card mostly didn't. Eight of nine ended inside the distance, which makes it 9 of 13 across the whole night, and five of the eight came in the first round.

• Emiliano Sordi def. Abraham Bably, TKO, round 2, 3:13. The night's other upset. Sordi closed at +169 against Bably at -209, then knocked him down three times. He is 27-14-1, and he has seen everything.
• Cobey Fehr def. Rosario Romero, submission, round 1, 0:58. Fastest finish of the night. Fehr is 5-0.
• Levan Khabalaev def. Brock Hamer, TKO, round 1, 1:01. Two knockdowns in 61 seconds. Khabalaev was originally booked on the main card against Morquez Forest; the new opponent lasted about as long as the paperwork. He is 6-0.
• Eliezer Kubanza def. Trey Waters, TKO, round 1, 1:36. Two knockdowns inside 96 seconds. Kubanza is 10-1.
• Gamid Khizriev def. Michael Boylan, TKO, round 1, 3:04. The biggest favorite on the card at -2519, and he looked it. Now 6-0.
• Kevin Pease def. Cássio Barão, submission, round 1, 3:28. Pease stays unbeaten at 9-0.
• Shannon Clark def. Lucero Acosta, TKO, round 3, 1:59. Clark landed 125 strikes before the stoppage, the busiest output of any prelim. She is 9-1.
• Noah Hermosillo def. Caden Cox, TKO, round 3, 1:43. Seven takedowns from 10 attempts set it up. Hermosillo is 2-0.
• Paulina Wisniewska def. Chelsea Hackett, unanimous decision (29-28 x3). The only prelim to see the scorecards. Wisniewska landed 5 of 7 takedowns and held 8:15 of control, the same recipe that won the main event.

One for the ledger

Ten of the 12 bouts with a sportsbook line went to the favorite. The two that didn't were Sordi in the second round and Bishop over 25 minutes, and only one of them changed who holds a belt.

I had Carmouche because she had already solved Bishop once. Bishop's answer was to make sure the problem never came up standing. Every round-by-round number from the night is on the event page, and the next question is simple: does the PFL book the third one now, or make Carmouche earn it?