Macfarlane fights for more than Bellator titles
Women’s flyweight champion IlimaLei Macfarlane could break a company record if she pulls off a seventh submission Saturday at Bellator 220.
But there’s another number she aims to beat, and so far it’s looking good.
One year ago, donations to Macfarlane’s scholarship helped send five teenage girls to the Native Like Water InterTribal Youth Program, an academic enrichment program for indigenous youth. This year, over 10 applied for retreats in Jamaica, Panama, San Diego and her native Hawaii.
At a time when most fighters are tapering down, Macfarlane spent Monday of event week evaluating candidates before the stress of Saturday’s task overwhelmed her.
It’s all worth it to the Bellator champ, though, when she considers the bigger picture.
Macfarlane (9-0 MMA, 8-0 BMMA), a cultural anthropology major with a focus on indigenous issues, started her “Ilimanator” scholarship in reaction to an epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women. It’s an issue that recently united Democratic and Republican senators who introduced a bill that demands more accountability from law enforcement when investigating crimes against people in native and indigenous communities.
Macfarlane’s aim is to teach young girls self-reliance so they aren’t victims of abuse or violence.
“It’s seeing these young girls grow into these beautiful young women who are more sure and confident in themselves,” she told USA TODAY. “That’s the main thing I wanted to show these girls. You can be a confident woman and tell somebody, ‘Don’t touch me.’ ”
Before a title defense this past March, the Bellator champ put up $2,000 of her purse to kick-start the scholarship. For Saturday’s fight, she said one of her sponsors, a Kawaiibased poi harvester, has agreed to redirect her fight money to send one girl from the island.
It costs about $1,500 a person to send someone to the program. So far, she said she’s raised enough for seven girls this year. She hopes that number climbs as she retakes the spotlight for her third title defense against Veta Arteaga (5-2, 4-2), a slugger who’s won her past two fights.
“We condition our girls to grow up being submissive, not having a voice,” she said. “To show them someone like myself who can be successful, who can do well in a male-dominated arena, it’s to show them they can do it, too.”
Macfarlane saw the payoff this past year when one of her scholarship recipients wowed the crowd at a beauty pageant held for the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation tribe.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s one of my girls,’ ” she beamed. “She was this quiet little thing with braces and just totally blossomed.”