What do Douglas Lima and Andrey Koreshkov both have in common? They both fight in the main event at Bellator 140 for the Bellator Welterweight Championship, they have both put up impressive win streaks since their last loss and both had their last loss come against former Bellator champion Ben Askren.
What else do they have in common? Both fighters were less than impressed by Ben Askren’s recent fight against Luis Santos.
“It wasn’t a very good performance.He got taken down twice and got taken down with strikes,” Lima said to Last Word on Sports.
Koreshkov, the Russian wrestler who plans on taking Lima’s welterweight title this Friday at Bellator 140 was a little more harsh in his breakdown of the fight.
“Yes I saw the fight. He did the cheap shot. He stuck the finger in his opponents eye on purpose because he was losing. I think they will eventually have a rematch and Santos will finish him,” Koreshkov told Last Word.
In the fight, Ben Askren was finding trouble getting the takedown in the first two minutes, having five takedown attempts stuffed, while also getting hit hard with plenty of punches and kicks. Momentum switched in Askren’s favor after that as he pressured Santos before landing a takedown. The fight was stopped when an eyepoke delivered to Santos rendered him unable to continue.
The fight was declared a no-contest due to the accidental eye poke, with Askren retaining his ONE Welterweight Championship. The champion says that the eye poke was accidental, and that in a rematch he would get the better of Santos.
“Let’s fight again as soon as possible, maybe next week, maybe two weeks. You looked for a way out. I’m going to give you a better way out next time,” Askren said post fight.
Koreshkov believes that it was Askren was the one looking for a way out of the fight with the eye-poke. Koreshkov has also said that he would be more than happy to have a rematch against Askren.
Just finished talking to Andrey Koreshkov and he believes at some point, he will have a rematch with Ben Askren
— Jason Floyd (@Jason_Floyd) July 7, 2015
Douglas Lima is not looking for another fight with Askren as he is focused on defending his championship against Koreshkov this Friday on Spike TV.
“I’m not worried about him. Somebody else is fighting me, and that’s my main concern right now.”
