“I underestimated him in the beginning maybe,” Gegard Mousasi admitted following his middleweight title win against Douglas Lima at Bellator 250.
The main event of the Thursday night card, airing on Bellator’s new home of CBS Sports Network, went all five rounds. Mousasi clearly won three if not four of them. The fifth round saw a resurgent Lima turn up the heat.
“I would have rather had a finish, but he wouldn’t go away. After the first round, I knew he was going to stay for five,” Mousasi told media outlets including Cageside Press.
Mousasi said after the win that he expects to fight John Salter next. “He’s the next guy. Definitely looking forward to that fight,” the now two-time Bellator middleweight champion said.
But aside from defending that middleweight belt, there’s the idea that Mousasi could move up to light heavyweight for a second title. He held 205lb gold in Strikeforce, after all. And has flirted with the idea of going there eventually in Bellator.
“First John Salter, then we go for after that. The landscape of MMA, I have to see what’s going to happen,” Mousasi stated. “I don’t care that much about two belts. I just have to win my fights. But if they give me it, I’ll take it.”
For his part, Bellator President Scott Coker was a little more bullish on the idea when he spoke to Cageside Press during his own post-fight press scrum. In Coker’s mind, he’d love to see Mousasi go up against the likes of Ryan Bader, Corey Anderson, or even champ Vadim Nemkov.
So perhaps Mousasi will get that opportunity regardless.
Watch the full Belaltor 250 post-fight press conference with Gegard Mousasi above.
