Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima knows Saturday’s bout with Rory MacDonald is his greatest opportunity yet.
Douglas Lima is looking at the biggest fight of his career on Saturday. Despite being the defending Bellator MMA welterweight champion, the soft-spoken Lima has flown under the radar. Having rattled off three straight wins over Paul Daley, Andrey Koreshkov, and Lorenz Larkin, that’s almost unthinkable. Yet that’s the reality for Lima (29–6), who may be one of the most underappreciated champions in combat sports.
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How bad is the lack of respect? It’s to the point that Bellator (in a move apparently made by Viacom) dropped him from Saturday’s Bellator 192 main event. Yet Lima isn’t letting that get to him. He spoke to Cageside Press about the main event snub, the fight against McDonald finally putting him on the map and more.
“This is definitely the fight that’s going to put me on the map.”
“Myself, I didn’t really mind it” he said of the switch, that sees Chael Sonnen vs. Rampage Jackson get top billing. “I was a little bummed out, title fight, biggest in the history of the company here, but it is what it is.” When it comes to the business side of the sport, “they understand it better than me. End of the day, my job is to fight – it doesn’t matter if it’s main event, co-main, I just want to fight. I want to fight him. This is an exciting fight, a lot of people have been waiting for it, I’ve been waiting for it myself. I’m prepared, I’m ready, I just can’t wait to preform.”
So will the bout against MacDonald finally get him noticed? “My opinion, yeah. A lot of people consider him the best in the world today. I took this serious. I know this fight’s going to get me out there a lot more, get my name to a lot of new eyes” Lima explained. “Just gotta make the most of it. Have some fun, win this fight in a devastating way – I’m just excited on it. This is definitely the fight that’s going to put me on the map.”
MacDonald, for his part, has been talking about what comes after: potential fights at middleweight with Rafael Carvalho, and even the Bellator World Heavyweight Grand Prix. Yet Lima is the man with the belt, and should he defend his belt for a second time, are those opportunities, especially the middleweight fight, of interest? “Let him take the attention. For me right now, my focus is him” Lima said, later adding “I gotta get through him first. I’m not thinking of anything else.”
So how does the fight on Saturday end? “I don’t know how it’s going to end, but I’m coming for the knockout, I’m coming for the finish.”
Bellator 192 takes place at The Forum in Los Angeles on Saturday, January 20. The card airs free on The Paramount Network (formerly Spike TV). Check our full chat with Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima above!
