Emily Ducote has a chance to become Bellator's first Flyweight Champion in years at Bellator 186, but she's far from the betting favorite in the bout.
The 23-year old Ducote squares off with unbeaten Ilima-Lei MacFarlane on the show, but it's not the first meeting between the two. MacFarlane put Ducote away with a three round unanimous decision victory less than a year ago at Bellator 167. Ducote told Fightful.com's James Lynch that she was surprised to get another crack at MacFarlane so soon.
"We immediately discussed it and decided we were going to take the opportunity. We don't want to pass that up. I was surprised at the timing. I thought for sure she'd be fighting for the title, but didn't think they'd put her with me. I thought I'd have to fight a few more times and we'd be matched up," Ducote told Lynch.
With their fight being so recent, Ducote is well aware of her underdog status, but isn't making any calls about how the fight plays out.
"Anything could happen. I'm sure the fight will go everywhere. I don't have any predictions, I just show up to fight and see what goes down inside," said Ducote. "I am the underdog, plain and simple. Not a lot of people are expecting anything from me. She's got all of the media and responsibilities. I don't mind being the underdog, it does nothing to me. Media doesn't interrupt my fight camp or anything. We're focused on the fight. Maybe it'll be an advantage, maybe it won't."
Since Ducote's loss last year, she stepped up and scored two big wins over Katy Collins and Jessica Middleton. MacFarlane even said that despite their last fight happening 11 months ago, Ducote is worthy of the re-match.
In the full interview, Emily Ducote (6-2) discusses her upcoming vacant flyweight title fight against Ilma-Lei MacFarlane (6-0) at Bellator 186 on November 3. Emily also talks about how this rematch came together, her training camp for this matchup and her plans for Halloween.
