Koreshkov On Road To Welterweight Finals
On one of the biggest night’s in Bellator History, two former Bellator welterweight champions face-off in the first round of the Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix.
Andrey Koreshkov faces Douglas Lima in the rubber match of their trilogy, as both fighters have taken one fight from one another. While Lima would take the second fight and Koreshkov’s welterweight title in 2016, the Russian fighter feels confident heading into Bellator 206.
“My experience of two fights I’ve had against him,” Koreshkov told FIGHT SPORTS. “The most important thing here is to follow the game plan, if I do that I’ll beat him.”
Focus has been a key for the former welterweight champion, bouncing back from his loss to Lima with first round stoppage wins at Bellator 182 and Bellator 203 in July. And while Koreshkov is not looking past Lima on September 29th in San Jose, looking at the bracket for the welterweight tournament creates some interesting matchups, especially in the next round.
When asked about facing either Paul Daley or Michael Page next Koreshkov claimed its “hard to say” who is going to come out of the first round but has his suspicions.
“I think Paul Daley takes it. Myself and Paul Daley would be an entertaining fight.”
Also fighting on September 29th is fellow welterweight grand prix competitor and current welterweight champion, Rory MacDonald. While MacDonald is fighting for the middleweight title at Bellator 206, Koreshkov feels that MacDonald will have an easy path to the finals. “Most likely Rory MacDonald will make it to the finals,” he told FIGHT SPORTS this week. “And in the finals, I want to fight and beat him.”
“I think Rory is a strong fighter, we’ve seen a lot of his fights in the other promotion [UFC], where he faced top guys in our weight class, he did really well against them. I think that he’s gonna lose this fight [against Gegard Mousasi] because he’s not used to the weight class.”
And while he may feel MacDonald won’t be a double champion after Bellator 206, time will tell if Koreshkov will be able to break his series tie with Lima and get on the road to face MacDonald for the welterweight crown and $1 million offered by new Bellator sponsor Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.
Andrey Koreshkov and Douglas Lima face off on September 29th from the SAP Center in San Jose, California as part of Bellator 206, available on DAZN.