Bellator Welterweight Champ Douglas Lima Believes He’s Better Than UFC’s Kamaru Usman
Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima believes he would win in a potential cross-promotional fight with the UFC’s 170-pound king Kamaru Usman.
Lima became a three-time welterweight champion after outpointing Rory MacDonald in the Bellator 232 headliner on Saturday. It made it 11 wins in the last 13 fights for “The Phenom” who cemented his place as one of the best 170-pounders on the planet.
Comparisons with Usman were natural but Lima believes he would emerge victorious, regardless of who the champion is.
“For sure, I think about it every time (fighting Kamaru Usman or Tyron Woodley). Especially after a win like this,” Lima told TMZ (via BJ Penn). “I know real MMA fans, they recognize, they know I’m up there with those guys.
“They know I can beat, I can fight any of them. But, most of them it’s like, ‘Man, you’re not in the UFC, you’re a nobody.’”
Lima is not a fan of people looking down on fighters just because they’re not competing in the UFC. It’s one of the reasons why he’s hoping for a cross-promotional event in the future:
“Man, I hate that,” he added. “That’s people who don’t understand the sport. It’s not the name UFC or Bellator or ONE FC. There’s killers everywhere. Now Scott Coker is doing co-promotions with Rizin. I would love if we do that with the UFC.”
As for the matchup with Usman, Lima acknowledges that “The Nigerian Nightmare” has high-level wrestling that has served him well in keeping him undefeated in the UFC. However, Lima also believes it wouldn’t matter if he were to connect on him:
“Of course I would do great, I’d beat him,” Lima said. “I’d probably KO him. He’s a great wrestler for sure, he wrestles a lot. But man, at any point in that fight if I connect, I can put him away. I don’t even think about that, I just know I can beat him, I can beat anybody at this weight class.
“I’m not talking bad about the guy. He’s a champion there. He’s doing his thing. But, I just know it, man. If one day something like this happens, I definitely believe in myself to go over there and kill it.”
Do you agree with Lima?
