Douglas Lima hopes Bellator San Diego win over Aaron Jeffery leads to middleweight title shot

Douglas Lima wants to wear Bellator gold once again.

The three-time Bellator welterweight champion returns to the circular cage Saturday to face Aaron Jeffery in a middleweight clash at the Bellator Champions Series show in San Diego, Calif., and hopes to gain another shot at the 185-pound title with a win.

Lima heads into his first bout under the the new Bellator umbrella since PFL took over earlier this year, but said he hasn’t felt any difference in the promotion since.

“What matters to me is what happens in the cage, and that hasn’t changed,” Lima said. “I don’t care where it is. It could be in someone’s backyard or in the world’s biggest arena, we’re in the cage so it changes nothing to me. Lock us both in there and let us do our job.”

Jeffery, his opponent at the Pechanga Arena, has been victorious in 14 of 19 professional bouts, losing only to some of the world’s best, such as Sean Brady, Brendan Allen, Caio Borralho, and Fabian Edwards.

Lima has beaten the likes of Rory MacDonald, Michael Page, Andrey Koreshkov, Lorenz Larkin, and Paul Daley in 22 Bellator appearances, and rules out going back to welterweight unless the offer is too good to pass.

“It’s a tough fight, he’s good,” Lima said of Jeffery. “He throws hands and kicks in some fights, and wrestles in others. He did well against Edwards, it could have gone either way, He’s at the top and that’s exactly what I want. I wanna fight the best of the division so I can get to the top as quickly as possible. The belt is always the focus, so this fight will help get us there.”

The middleweight belt was expected to be on the line in the main event of Bellator London on Sept. 14, but the company announced earlier this week that Edwards’ rematch with champion Johnny Eblen has to be postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date due to undisclosed reasons.

“The goal is always to win a fight, no matter how,” Lima said of his upcoming match. “I need a submission, a knockout. It’s been a while since I have finished a fight, and that’s what I’m always going after. I saw [Jeffery’s] potential since his first fight in Bellator and knew he would go far in the sport. I know it’s a tough fight and I’ve trained as if it’s a title fight. The last guy he lost to is now fighting for the belt, so this fight will definitely help me get there.”