Andrey Koreshkov battles Douglas Lima and grabs the title for Welterweight. The battle is for The Bellator MMA welterweight title.
Koreshkov, having a record of 18 wins and 1 loss is popular for his menacing impact, won what seemed to be a wrestling against Douglas Lima. It took five rounds for Koreshkov to get the match. He won the belt by unanimous decision.
The judges scored the fight, 50-45, 50-45 and 48-47. This was the second time that Koreshkov fought for this title (The Bellator Title). He was not successful the first time he fought for the title in 2013. He was up against Ben Askren, the champion at that time.
After being awarded as The Bellator Welterweight Title, Koreshkov has this to say (translated by an interpreter):
“It’s not my belt, it’s our belt — my team. My coaches, [former Bellator middleweight champion] Alexander Shlemenko, for my family, friends, for everybody. I respect everyone who respects me. I wish [the rest of the division] good luck in getting close to this belt. Then we’ll see”.
The 24-year-old mixed martial arts Russian fighter scored for almost all the rounds. He failed to succeed in the fifth round though. Koreshkov finished the match having a total of 7 takedowns. For Lima, having a record of 26 wins and 6 losses, this was actually his first fight, coming back from an injury, since last April 2014. Lima threw a few slow combinations over 25 minutes and struggled in his first comeback battle.
Lima round was supposed to be first, having landed several kicks hitting Koreshkov’s lead leg. In the same round’s last minute, Koreshokov showcased his true game plan for the match, Lima was slammed to the mat eventually by shooting a double leg on him.
Lima quickly worked to get back up to his feet, but moments later, Koreshkov took him down again. At first, Koreshkov was not successful to strike Lima, but Koreshkov clearly threw him with unexpected wrestling which was off-rhythm.
For the succeeding rounds, it was actually how it happened during the first. Koreshkov continued to take Lima down. He was throwing jabs against Lima and was getting into a top position when Lima is down. Lima wasn’t injured at all and did not show any signs of being finished. Lima just failed to showcase his real game plan to dominate the fight. While Koreshkov, on the other hand, was content with his plan. He showcased a cautious approach on top.
In the last minute of the fifth round, Lima landed on one clean punch in the pocket, which he then used, to get on top of Koreshkov after he latter was sprawling on the takedown. Though this happened, Lima only managed to hit his opponent with a few short punches. Though Koreshkov suffered with a cut on his nose from the fourth round, because of the counter jab, this did not seem to bother the fighter at all.
Due to this win, Koreshkovis at his fifth winning streak.