Former Bellator champion Douglas Lima has announced his return to MMA for the Dana White Contender Series on September 7th in San Diego. In a middleweight showdown, the fighter will face veteran Aaron Jeffery.
The fight will be Lima’s first after he was benched for a year due to his purse being too high. However, after Bellator merged with PFL, the athlete came to an agreement with the new promoters and has now booked a fight.
Lima has had a successful MMA run in Bellator history. The fighter was among the most successful champions, beating fighters like Michael Page, Andrey Koreshkov, Rory MacDonald, and Paul Daley. However, the fighter suffered four straight losses; his last defeat was at the hands of Costello van Steenis.
His opponent, Jeffrey [14-5], has defeated Bellator fighters like Austin Vnaderford and Fabio Aguiar. The athlete has won three of his last five fights. His most recent defeat was a unanimous decision loss to Fabian Edwards.
The Bellator Champions fight card will feature the main event lightweight title bout between Usman Nurmagomedov and Alexander Shabily. Raufeon Stots will battle Marcos Breno in the co-main event fight, while Lorenz Larkin faces Levan Chokheli.
Stots[20-2] has defeated Juan Archuleta, Magomed Magomedov, and Keith Lee in Bellator. His last and only loss was against champion Patchy Mix, but he rebounded to win against Danny Sabatello.
Breno[15-3] defeated prospects like Ary Farias and Leandro Silva before earning a victory over Josh Hill in his promotional debut in Bellator in 2022. However, he lost to Sabatello shortly after that and is looking for a rebound win.
Larkin [26-8, 2 no contests] will return to the cage to continue his eight-fight unbeatable winning streak.
Chokheli [13-2. 1 no contest] has won his last three matches in the Bellator promotion by beating Roman Faraldo, Michael Lombardo, and finally Sabah Homasi at Bellator 299 in Dublin.
