Bellator Season Five Welterweight tournament winner, and former Maximum Fighting Championship title holder, Douglas ‘The Phenom’ Lima (21-5) had the biggest opportunity of his young career this past weekend in Windsor, Ontario fighting Bellator champ Ben Askren for the title at Bellator 64.
Despite some high hopes Askren would retain the title, controlling the fight for all five rounds from top position on the mat cruising to a unanimous decision victory.
As Lima explains to Tatame.com, despite all of his preparations for the fight, it all went out the window as he “blacked out” versus Askren and “did everything wrong” in the match.
“I did a terrible job. I didn’t do what I trained to do. Before the bout I was feeling fine, but I couldn’t do it when I got in there. It wasn’t my night. I was very disappointed because I really trained hard and I was ready, but it wasn’t meant to be. I’m training even more to come back with everything I’ve got”.
“I knew he would be tough at Wrestling and that he would take me down eventually. But I expected more from me. I know I did everything wrong, but I hope to correct it and never let it happen again”, guaranteed.
“I even went for a submission, but I couldn’t get it right. He did a good job defending himself when I could sweep or do the stand-up game. We trained a lot and it worked on training, but when I fought I just blacked out. My bad”.
Lima wants to return to action as soon as he can and explains that he will be included in next seasons Bellator tournament. ‘The Phenom’ has expressed a desire to fight in Japan, it’s possible that with all of the collaboration between Bellator and DREAM, Lima may find his next fight overseas.