AJ McKee, Liz Carmouche Claim PFL Title Cases

Vacant belts make fighters impatient.

PFL San Diego did not hand AJ McKee or Liz Carmouche a title on Saturday night, but it gave both of them the only currency that matters in a crowded promotion: a clean result against a ranked, relevant opponent. McKee solved Salamat Isbulaev over three rounds at Pechanga Arena, while Carmouche turned a clinch-heavy fight with Viviane Araujo into a second-round submission.

Neither win was dressed up as a coronation. Good. MMA usually lies when it tries to be that tidy. McKee left with damage around the face and a reminder that unbeaten fighters do not arrive by accident. Carmouche left with another argument for gold, then pointed toward a division PFL has not built for women.

AJ McKee Beats Salamat Isbulaev

McKee’s night had the texture of a veteran test rather than a showcase. Isbulaev entered unbeaten, and he did enough on the feet to keep the former Bellator featherweight champion from cruising through a clean, theatrical performance. There were exchanges where McKee had to work, reset, and answer fire instead of simply showing off the tools that made him one of Bellator’s most dangerous homegrown stars.The scorecards were still clear. All three judges gave McKee every round, producing a 30-27 sweep across the board after 15 minutes. That tells the real story better than any highlight clip: Isbulaev stayed in the fight, but McKee banked the rounds, found the stronger positions in the grappling sequences, and never let the bout become the upset Isbulaev needed.

Featherweight Title Race Tightens

McKee’s post-fight tone mattered because it was not empty bravado. He acknowledged that Isbulaev had been better than expected, while also making it plain that his target is another belt. At 31, with a 25-2 record and a Bellator title run already behind him, McKee is not trying to become a prospect again; he is trying to turn PFL’s vacant 145-pound title picture into his next chapter.

• AJ McKee defeated Salamat Isbulaev by unanimous decision in the PFL San Diego main event.
• All three judges scored the featherweight bout 30-27 for McKee.
• Liz Carmouche submitted Viviane Araujo with a second-round guillotine choke.
• McKee sits behind top-ranked Timur Khizriev, while Carmouche remains behind Dakota Ditcheva at women’s flyweight.

Liz Carmouche Eyes More Than Flyweight

Carmouche is 42, which is the kind of number promoters love to frame as a warning until the fighter keeps ruining the math. Against Araujo, she did not need a long open-space striking match to make her case. The fight spent enough time in close quarters against the fence for Carmouche to do what she has done for years: make a physical problem out of every small position. In the second round, the guillotine was there, and Araujo had to tap.Carmouche’s flyweight claim is obvious from the rankings and the résumé in front of PFL. She is the No. 2 women’s flyweight, the 2025 PFL World Tournament winner, and a former Bellator champion who has already challenged for titles in Strikeforce and the UFC. Dakota Ditcheva is still the name above her, and Ditcheva is scheduled to return against Denise Kielholtz after missing last year’s tournament through injury. If Ditcheva wins, Ditcheva-Carmouche for the vacant 125-pound title is the cleanest fight PFL can make. The more interesting wrinkle is Carmouche’s demand for bantamweight, because PFL and Bellator have not had a women’s 135-pound division for her to conquer. That makes her callout less like lobbying for a matchup and more like asking the promotion to create space around her ambition.

McKee improved to 25-2, Carmouche moved to 26-8, and both left San Diego with title claims tied directly to vacant PFL belts.