Bellator fighter aiming to be considered the world's best MMA welterweight
Douglas Lima has had two stints as Bellator’s welterweight champion, and he’s determined to make it a third. He begins that journey on Saturday, when he meets rival Andrey Koreshkov in their first-round match of the Bellator welterweight grand prix in San Jose, California.
Lima has a difficult bracket, though, if he wants to once again slip the belt around his waist.
Koreshkov is a former champion who lost the belt to Lima on Nov. 10, 2016, at Bellator 164, when Lima scored a third-round knockout. Koreshkov defeated Lima at Bellator 140 to win the belt on July 17, 2016.
If Lima gets past Koreshkov, he’ll meet the winner of the Paul Daley-Michael Page bout in the semifinals. And looming on the other side is the champion, Rory MacDonald, who will face Jon Fitch in the first round later.
First, though, MacDonald is fighting Saturday, challenging Gegard Mousasi for the middleweight championship. MacDonald will come back later, win or lose, to defend his belt against Fitch in the tournament.
Lima hopes MacDonald escapes the first round without injury so the tournament is not delayed.
“It’s great for him that he gets a chance to fight for another belt, and I get why he wants to do it, but it kind of is holding the tournament back a bit,” Lima said. “My only concern is he wins but gets injured and it holds the tournament up.”
That is down the road, though. First, Lima knows he needs to be at his best against Koreshkov, who is 21-2 overall and has only lost to Lima and Ben Askren.
The rubber match figures to be a high-contact affair, but Lima is bubbling with confidence. While he refers to Koreshkov as “a fantastic fighter,” he believes the second bout between them is more representative of their skills than the first, a unanimous decision loss to Koreshkov in Uncasville, Connecticut.
“The first fight, I had a serious knee injury and I wasn’t even at 50 percent for that fight,” Lima said. “It is not an excuse, just a fact. Watch the fight and look at the way I was moving and looked at how I moved in the second fight.
“When I was healthy, it was a totally different fight. I feel great and I think that will show [in my performance].”
Lima feels the winner of the tournament will have earned the right to be called the best welterweight in the world. Right now, that is widely regarded to be UFC champion Tyron Woodley, though Lima pointed out that MacDonald scored an impressive win over Woodley in a non-title bout in 2014.
If Lima defeats Koreshkov, the Daley-Page winner and then MacDonald, he believes he’ll have earned the right to be called the best.
“I believe most people, if you asked them, would say that Tyron is the best welterweight today, but let’s not forget what Rory did to him,” Lima said. “Rory is the champion here now. But I’ll admit, MMA math doesn’t work. You have to fight the fights. We have a lot of the best fighters in the world. You have to remember, it’s not about a brand, it’s about the fighters, and if you get through this tournament, absolutely you should be considered the top [welterweight in the world].”
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