Liz Carmouche (The Iraq War, Mixed Martial Arts and Underwater Fitness) - Episode 432
Behind The Shield
James Geering
4.9 • 695 Ratings
🗓️ 6 June 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Liz Carmouche is a Marine Veteran and one of the first professional female fighters in the UFC. We discuss her journey into the military, serving in Iraq, homophobia, transgender athletes, underwater fitness training, mental health, overcoming injuries, service dogs and so much more.
A Veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Liz “Girlrilla” Carmouche is an American Mixed Martial Arts fighter currently competing in the bantamweight division. Born in Lafayette, LA, she grew up on Okinawa the daughter of an Airman. During her five year enlistment, Liz Before was an Aviation Electrician during which time she completed three tours in Iraq. Carmouche started training MMA to ease her transition.
She began her professional fighting career in 2010, and was named the WMMA Press Awards Newcomer of the Year in the same year. In February 2013, Carmouche was recognized as the first openly gay fighter in the UFC and has served as a positive role model throughout the MMA community. She is also the FIRST woman to NOT be arm-barred by Ronda Rousey and the first fighter in UFC history to win at Madison Square Garden.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is sponsored by 511 Tactical, a company that I've used for around 14 years now and |
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| 1:22.1 | Welcome to episode 432 of Behind the Shield podcast. |
| 1:25.6 | As always, my name's James Gearing, and this week it is my absolute |
| 1:28.1 | pleasure to welcome on the show, Liz Karmouche. Now, Liz is a marine veteran and was actually one of |
| 1:33.7 | the first two women to appear in the UFC. So we discussed a host of topics from her training in the |
| 1:40.0 | military, how it transitioned into mixed martial arts, the underwater training she does with |
| 1:45.2 | deep end fitness, and so much more. Before we get to that conversation, as I say every week, |
| 1:49.9 | please just take a moment go to whichever app you listen to this on. Subscribe to the show, |
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