Douglas Lima is the second welterweight champion to move to Bellator’s middleweight division against Gegard Mousasi for a shot at becoming a double champ. At Bellator 250, he became the second man to fail.
Of course, Rory MacDonald attempted to do the same a few years ago, and also came up short. Lima acquitted himself somewhat better, going the distance and absolutely decimating Mousasi’s leg by the fifth and final round.
It was Mousasi’s night, however, taking four of five rounds on two judges’ scorecards. The third had him winning three. Following the bout, Bellator President Scott Coker told Cageside Press that he was interested in seeing Mousasi moved up to light heavyweight. Earlier in the night, Mousasi himself said he didn’t care about double championship pursuits, but would take the opportunity if one was presented to him.
“Absolutely. When we signed Gegard, he had a desire to fight at 205 as well. So we’re going to explore that, we have some great fights for him at 205,” said Coker. Reiterating a claim he’d made just a few months ago, which brought a strong rebuke from UFC President Dana White, Coker added “I still think we have the best 205lb weight class fighters in the world, we have I think six, seven, eight deep. Including Corey Anderson, who’s fighting Melvin [Manhoef] next week.”
As far as Mousasi moving up, “it’s something that I think he should do. He should try it out and check it out.” And Coker has an idea of who he might match the middleweight champion up with.
“Gegard fighting at 205, I see him fighting Ryan Bader, I see him fighting maybe Corey Anderson. There’s a lot of guys,” suggested Coker. “Even fighting Nemkov at some point. If he wants to go for the belt, we can have that conversation. We just haven’t had it yet, he’s been focusing on this fight. Now that it’s over, we’ll let him rest up, and we can have some conversations.”
Watch the full Bellator 250 post-fight press scrum with Scott Coker above.
