Welterweight champion Douglas Lima doesn’t fear anyone in Bellator

Douglas Lima said he would never let a fight go the distance again following a loss to Ben Askren, and he really meant it.



The Brazilian scored his fifth straight knockout victory to claim the welterweight title against Rick Hawn at Bellator 117 on April 18 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and he’s ready for more.



"Every fight brings different challenges," Lima told MMAFighting.com. "The important is to be so well prepared that I don’t even need to think about my opponents. I will go there to do my thing and I don’t fear anyone’s game."



Lima fought Hawn for the vacant title and needed two rounds to win the bout. Hawn’s corners stopped the fight in the second round after several low kicks from "The Phenom", and new champion saw that coming.



"I wasn’t surprised, actually," Lima said of the corner stoppage. "Hawn is a warrior and he would never quit. He was really hurt, but he was already getting back up. I thought the referee could stop the fight at any moment because the kicks were landing."



"We trained a lot for this fight," he continued. "I thank Roan Carneiro and my training partners because they really got me ready. It was not easy, but I’m happy with the result. That’s what we train for every day. The strategy was to keep the distance with the jabs and score with kicks and heavy hands."



A two-time tournament winner in Bellator, Lima was thrilled when Bjorn Rebney gave him the welterweight belt.



"It was awesome, man," he said. "I remembered everything I went through in training and all the suffering with the diet. Thank God my dream came true. I’m really happy, but that’s only the beginning. I will train hard now to maintain this title with us forever."



Adam McDonough will fight the winner of Andrey Koreshkov vs. Sam Oropeza in the tournament final to determine the next in line against Lima, but the champion is confident.



"I will find out who I’m fighting in eight weeks," he said. "I don’t know who will win the tournament because they are all really tough, but we will prepare a good strategy and I’m confident against any of them. I will be ready."

(source: http://ift.tt/1nAs4Y6)

Statistics: Posted by mmacanada — Apr 29. 2014, 06:12 — Replies 0 — Views 8

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