Bellator champion Douglas Lima reacts to Paul Daley’s win: ‘Nothing impressed me’

Douglas Lima was set to headline Bellator 134 in a welterweight title defense against Paul Daley on Feb. 27, but eventually withdrew from the card due to an infection. And that’s when everything started.

Daley, who defeated Lima’s replacement Andre Santos via unanimous decision that night, told MMAFighting.com that the 170-pound champion used the injury as an excuse to run away from him.

“It is an excuse for not being able to make weight in the time given to him and getting out of a beating,” Daley told Marc Raimondi. “I don’t buy it. I think he’s most definitely running. He’s scared.”

Following Daley’s win over “Chatuba”, Lima decided to respond.

“He’s delusional,” Lima told MMAFighting.com of Daley. “I never ran away from a fight in my entire life. I couldn’t even walk six weeks ago. I did this surgery and got this serious infection, and he’s saying I ran? He’s delusional, and the time to fight him is coming. Let’s see if he’s everything he says.”

“Semtex” won a fight by decision for the first time since 2011, and Lima, a fellow knockout artist, wasn’t impressed by his performance.

“He fought well, it was a back and forth fight, but nothing impressed me,” Lima said. “I didn’t expect the fight to last three rounds. For everything he was saying, I was expecting a quick knockout. It’s hard to finish a fight these days. ‘Chatuba’ is really tough, he handled a lot of punishment, but Daley also got tired.”

If Daley had that kind of performance against Lima, the Brazilian is sure that the bout would end quickly.

“He would get knocked out in the first,” he said.

However, despite all the bad blood between the welterweight strikers, Daley is not a lock for Lima’s next fight yet.

“It will probably be Daley, but we’ll see,” Lima said. “Andrey Koreshkov is also an option, so we’ll see what they are going to do.”

Lima, who hasn’t fought since a second-round TKO over Rick Hawn last April, has no timetable for his return to the cage, but feels glad to be safe after a life-threatening infection.

“(My recovery) is good, but slow,” he said. “Unfortunately, I can’t rush my recovery. It was a pretty serious infection that could even kill me, but thanks God everything is fine.”

Douglas Lima was set to headline Bellator 134 in a welterweight title defense against Paul Daley on Feb. 27, but eventually withdrew from the card due to an infection. And that’s when everything started.

Daley, who defeated Lima’s replacement Andre Santos via unanimous decision that night, told MMAFighting.com that the 170-pound champion used the injury as an excuse to run away from him.

“It is an excuse for not being able to make weight in the time given to him and getting out of a beating,” Daley told Marc Raimondi. “I don’t buy it. I think he’s most definitely running. He’s scared.”

Following Daley’s win over “Chatuba”, Lima decided to respond.

“He’s delusional,” Lima told MMAFighting.com of Daley. “I never ran away from a fight in my entire life. I couldn’t even walk six weeks ago. I did this surgery and got this serious infection, and he’s saying I ran? He’s delusional, and the time to fight him is coming. Let’s see if he’s everything he says.”

“Semtex” won a fight by decision for the first time since 2011, and Lima, a fellow knockout artist, wasn’t impressed by his performance.

“He fought well, it was a back and forth fight, but nothing impressed me,” Lima said. “I didn’t expect the fight to last three rounds. For everything he was saying, I was expecting a quick knockout. It’s hard to finish a fight these days. ‘Chatuba’ is really tough, he handled a lot of punishment, but Daley also got tired.”

If Daley had that kind of performance against Lima, the Brazilian is sure that the bout would end quickly.

“He would get knocked out in the first,” he said.

However, despite all the bad blood between the welterweight strikers, Daley is not a lock for Lima’s next fight yet.

“It will probably be Daley, but we’ll see,” Lima said. “Andrey Koreshkov is also an option, so we’ll see what they are going to do.”

Lima, who hasn’t fought since a second-round TKO over Rick Hawn last April, has no timetable for his return to the cage, but feels glad to be safe after a life-threatening infection.

“(My recovery) is good, but slow,” he said. “Unfortunately, I can’t rush my recovery. It was a pretty serious infection that could even kill me, but thanks God everything is fine.”